Stars, Stories, and Stewardship: Colby’s Island Campus
For this Wyeth enthusiast and Alumni Council member, the overnight island trip was otherworldly
Allen and Benner Islands are distinctive in that they offer year-round easy access and undisturbed environments that are ideal for conducting research. (Photo taken by Molly Beale Constable ’92)
By Molly Beale Constable ’92
The stars were aligned even before we set out from Port Clyde.
I was drawn to the Island Campus from the start. What could be better than Colby College, two Maine islands five miles out to sea, and the Wyeth family art legacy at play? For me, a photographer, conservationist, Wyeth devotee, and outdoor enthusiast, this was all right up my alley.
Colby formed the Island Campus when it acquired and became the steward of Allen and Benner islands in 2022. Previously, the islands had been owned by renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth and his visionary wife, Betsy. Betsy Wyeth purchased Allen Island in 1979 and Benner in 1990. There, she created an extraordinary built and natural environment where Andrew Wyeth painted some of his greatest works.
I grew up in Wyeth country—the very hills and valleys of Andrew Wyeth’s Pennsylvania landscapes. (The Wyeths lived in Chadds Ford, Pa., when they weren’t in Maine.) His compositions and subdued palette speak to me, and I connect with the way he captured the “abstract flash” of things that might otherwise go unnoticed. Last March, after visiting Cushing, Maine, and exploring Olson House and the field where Wyeth painted Christina’s World, I grew curious about seeing more of his Maine subject matter. I set my sights on visiting Colby’s islands.
But how? As a member of Colby’s Alumni Council, I had listened closely to conversations about the islands as interdisciplinary study centers for faculty and student research. And I knew that, from spring to early fall, the College offers day trips to Allen for alumni and families to hike and explore, watch the shorebird migration, see Atlantic puffins, collect research, and pitch in with seasonal clean-up efforts.
Last July, the stars aligned. My husband, Laurence, and I were scheduled to spend two nights on Monhegan Island—so we would be “in the area”—and Colby was training staff to manage new Island Campus excursions. It was a chance to visit the islands apart from the aforementioned tours, and we jumped at the opportunity.
The morning we arrived in Port Clyde, Jake Ward, longtime caretaker of the islands, and Fiona Powers ’26, an island student research fellow for the summer, greeted us with hearty smiles, and together we boarded the working boat Otherworld bound for Allen. We had an easy rapport and fell right into conversation as we made our way out of the harbor.
On board the Otherworld. (Photo taken by Molly Beale Constable ’92)
The Otherworld docked at Allen Island’s working dock. (Photo taken by Molly Beale Constable ’92)
Twenty minutes into the journey, as buildings and various landmarks on Allen came into view, I was struck by the feeling of suspended time. So much history, yet so much presence. Ward pointed out the granite cross on the northern shore. Beyond it, the towering white 18th-century sail loft sitting high above the harbor—just one example of the buildings Betsy Wyeth had disassembled and transported out to sea as part of her vision to build the “settlement,” a replica of a long-ago New England fishing village.
Arriving at the island’s working dock, we stared up at the towering stacks of lobster traps—a peek into a different world and a way of life. When purchasing the island, Betsy Wyeth had been sensitive to the maritime community and to maintaining Allen as an active commercial fishery, a partnership that continues today. We gathered our bags and walked the gravel road among the scattered buildings of the settlement to the block house, where we would stay overnight. I like to get the lay of the land to be oriented in my surroundings and felt a deep sense of simpatico when Powers immediately led us up the steep stairs of the cupola to drink in the stunning 360-degree view. We had a lot to explore.
As we wandered around the settlement, seeing student fellows juxtaposed against the rugged landscape, I was struck by the sense of history, productivity, and community. Again, that sense of timelessness. We peeked inside the sail loft, now a beautiful event and meeting space, before joining Ward to cross the channel for a once-in-a-lifetime look at Benner Island. Benner is generally “off limits” to visitors; however, Ward had a few projects to tend to, and Powers planned to check the watering at the greenhouse, which provides the Colby island community with fresh produce throughout the summer.
Timing and luck, I thought. We were in for a truly special tour.
If Allen Island is a living laboratory, Benner is a living museum. It is where the Wyeths lived during their summers in Maine.
Ward guided us around and through individual buildings, telling stories of the Wyeths at every turn. We stopped by the fish house, which is somewhat of a small nautical/fishing museum exhibiting various props Andrew Wyeth captured in his paintings. Natural sunlight poured through the windows of the octagonal round house. Set slightly up on a hill, this was intended to be Andrew’s studio, but he opted to work in the wharf house, where jars of pigments still sit next to a wooden easel. I especially loved the freestanding library, complete with chalk markings on the wooden planks from its previous use as a 19th-century grocery store on the mainland.
Assorted items stored in Benner Island’s salt shed. (Photo courtesy of Molly Beale Constable ’92)
Poem by Jamie Wyeth on Benner Island. (Photo taken by Molly Beale Constable ’92)
In the cape, the Wyeth’s home, Ward pointed out elements of Betsy Wyeth’s orderly, sparse design aesthetic: the high functionality of her kitchen, collections of shells under beautiful lavender glass bell jars, the oar used as a weathervane, the porch railing–intentionally low to allow for an unobstructed view straight out to the ocean while seated in a chair.
We wandered to the northern beach to look for sea glass, urchins, and arrowheads. Passing by an arrangement of boulders encircling a massive driftwood pile, Ward told us of how debris from a nor’easter had been made into a sculpture known as “Betsy’s Hat.” Before returning to Otherworld, we made a final stop in the Benner greenhouse to pick greens for dinner.
Back on Allen, we piled into a golf cart and, with Powers at the wheel, jostled down the island’s single-track dirt road to the southern end, passing various sculptures, freshwater ponds, and meadows along the way. We spotted a beaver dam as a bald eagle flew overhead. From the craggy coastline, we had a clear view of Monhegan and its whalelike silhouette even farther out to sea. Powers left us with a map, and we were on our own to explore the network of trails. We chose the blue shoreline trail, hiking through wind-whipped trees of old-growth forest and stopping at “Betsy’s beach,” a horseshoe bend in the shoreline with a northwest-facing view of Benner.
Blue shoreline signage on Allen Island. (Photo taken by Molly Beale Constable ’92)
Allen Island’s rocky coastline. (Photo taken by Molly Beale Constable ’92)
We returned to find our hosts—two Colby professors and a happy swarm of student fellows—busy shucking corn and setting the table for dinner at the bunk house. Soon, we were talking about subjects ranging from government regulation of offshore wind power to the impact of AI on environmental data science to the nitty gritty of student life on the Island Campus.
How lucky for these students and faculty to spend days and nights like this! It’s extraordinary that, in addition to the wonders Colby offers on Mayflower Hill, the College is able to steward these historic islands, rich with legacy, creativity, and possibility, and use them as centers for research, learning, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
After saying our thank yous and goodnights, we walked through the cool sea air to the block house to bed, a heaven of stars twinkling above. I thought of the opening lines of Rachel Lyman Field’s signature 1926 poem (framed on a bedroom wall in the Oar House, handwritten to Betsy Wyeth from her son Jamie Wyeth). “If once you’ve slept on an island, you’ll never quite be the same.”
Amen to that.
Overnight, the fog crept in and swallowed our plan to see much of anything from the “sunrise bench.” Instead, I crept outside at dawn and tiptoed around barefoot, taking in the still ghostliness of the early morning and soaking up every last minute of this world until we boarded Otherworld to go back to the mainland.
We had been enamored by the extraordinariness of these beautiful, austere islands and caught up in the simplicity of their self-contained worlds. What a boundless resource they are for the entire Colby community. There’s truly something for everyone. Just take a boat five miles out to sea. You’ll open your mind to limitless possibilities–and become an island steward in your own right.
Molly Beale Constable ’92 majored in English and remains an active member of the Colby community by serving on the Alumni Council as chair of the Colby Fund Committee and is a fundraising volunteer and the class correspondent for the Class of ’92.
Colby’s island trips offer a unique opportunity to connect through art, history, and the natural beauty of Allen Island. Please visit the event calendar for more information and to register for a trip.