At the end of the nineteenth century, a group of artists and professionals built or purchased houses in the small neighboring towns of Plainfield and Cornish, New Hampshire. The social epicenter of the Colony became "Mastlands, " house of the Dr. Arthur Nichols family. Prominent visitors from around the world toured the Nichols' gardens and danced in the ballroom at Mastlands. Author Alma Gilbert celebrates the area's history in The Cornish Colony Book of Days, which features images of works by "colonists" Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Henry O. Walker, and their friends, including thirteen paintings by Maxfield Parrish. It combines classic as well as contemporary photographs of Mastlands, which has been refurbished and reopened by Ms. Gilbert as the Maxfield Parrish Museum. Together these images evoke an era of idealism, artistic innovation, and optimism that inspires our admiration today.