Meet the Team: Docent Carter Jones Meyer

Carter was born and raised outside of Philadelphia. She studied American Studies at Skidmore College and continued her education, earning her M.A. and Ph.D at Brown University, also in American Studies. She specializes in and has published widely in the fields of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century American cultural history, the history of the American West, and Native American history. She is a Professor Emerita of History at Ramapo College of New Jersey. While there, she chaired both the History and American Studies programs and received awards for excellence in teaching and for significant contributions to the development of the College.

Carter had never been to Maine until she met her husband, Bruce, who spent summers in Maine from the time he was a boy. The Meyer family summer home is in Waldoboro and was originally built in 1760 by Colonel William Farnsworth. It is the ancestral home of our own Lucy Farnsworth! Carter’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise Meyer, researched and wrote a brief history of the Farnsworth family. She had close ties to the Farnsworth and generously donated Milton Avery’s 1952 painting The Typist to the collection.

The Farnsworth is so fortunate to have Carter as an integral part of the docent team, which she joined two years ago.  While she had never been a docent before, she feels her career as a history professor has been great preparation for it and she loves meeting so many smart, talented and extremely committed fellow docents.  She shares, 

I have always enjoyed sharing knowledge with others, perhaps getting them to think differently about the past, or to consider different perspectives. I’ve also enjoyed constructing an interdisciplinary context for understanding the past, and this gives my FAM tours a richness that visitors seem to enjoy.  

In addition to leading tours, Carter has joined fellow docents, Chris Williamson and now Joseph Côte, in teaching a popular Zoom class, Treasures of the Farnsworth at the University of Maine Senior College and Rochester Community Technical College, part of the University of Minnesota system.

Maine has offered Carter so many great outlets for her interests including studying the Passamaquoddy language, enriching her appreciation for Wabanaki history and culture, glassblowing, rowing with Megunticook Rowing, and singing with Down East Singers. She and Bruce have a home in New Mexico which allows her to pursue a passion for collecting contemporary Native art, particularly the art of the Native Southwest. Carter enjoys discovering many of the connections between New Mexico and Maine that Farnsworth artists such as Robert Henri, Marsden Hartley, and John Marin first explored in the early twentieth century.