George W. Sotter, Old Mill - Neshaminy Creek

A much-admired landscape painter and stained glass designer, Sotter became especially well known for winter nocturnes like this one. There are many mills along the Neshaminy Creek, some of which were still operating in Sotter’s time. Many others were demolished or converted to residential or other uses. The New Hope art colony, of which Sotter was a member, used Phillips Mill as its home base. 

After teaching painting and design for nine years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Sotter settled in Bucks County in 1919. By this time, he had established a reputation as one of the premiere designers of stained glass in the United States. He was commissioned to decorate churches and monasteries across the country, establishing Bucks County as a center of stained-glass art. Sotter was friendly with Edith Emerson, director of Woodmere from the early 1940s through 1978, and his first museum exhibitions took place in Woodmere’s galleries.