The phrase “a picture is worth 1,000 words” is an apt description for the 10 panels created by East Boothbay artist Sally Giddings Smith to complement the written history of Boothbay Harbor's Congregational Church. This is the year of the church's 250th anniversary.

To commemorate this historic occasion, a book co-authored by Chip Griffin, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Foulger, the Rev. Bob Dent and Jack Bauman, was written, entitled, “Lively Stones: The Evolution of the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor.”

To further memorialize the anniversary, there was discussion among history committee members about creating a visual history. The original idea considered was to use scrolls to depict the 250 years. During one meeting, Smith suggested canvas as the better choice as scrolls couldn't stand the test of time.

Smith created 10 panels, each one 20” x 30” of oil and mixed media and bearing hinges that connect them, one to the other, symbolic of the linear time frame of the church. Committee member Ted Repa constructed narrow wooden tables to display them and, until this month, they were displayed at the church.

Through the end of December the panels are on exhibit, hanging in the upstairs conference room of the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library on Oak Street.

Smith said coming up with the script for the panels taken from the book was the most difficult element of the project. After reading the book — “in depth” — Smith began sketching one panel at a time. She began painting them in January, completing the final six this summer.

“The time frames span eras and/or major historical events that happened in the church and outside of the Boothbay peninsula,” Smith said. “And I loved working on this. Loved it.”

The focus of the book is what happened within the church, in the nation, and the world and the impact all events had on Boothbay and the church. That focus let Smith create panels that reflected an outer focus as well as church focus. The panel time frames: 1766 – when Rev. John Murray, a Presbyterian, arrives in Boothbay from Ireland to become the first clergy person, 1766-1779, 1798-1805, 1805-1848, 1848-1865, 1865-1890, 1890-1920, 1920-1945, 1945-1980, and 1980-2016.

The first panel marks 18-year-old Rev. Murray’s passage — first to New York and then on to Townsend, now Boothbay Harbor. Smith credits East Boothbay artist and friend, (the late) Barbie Eldred for helping find photos of different ships that might bear resemblance to the ship Rev. John Murray traveled from Ireland to Boothbay on. Eldred also collaborated with Sue Goodrich on the logo — Murray aboard the ship with a mini Congo Church on board.

The second panel reflects Murray's arrival, the role he played in the spiritual lives of his congregation, with a sun in the painting representing Murray's part in the First Great Awakening. Murray was a cousin of the Murrays in East Boothbay who were instrumental in bringing him here.

The hardest time periods for Smith were from 1945-2016. “There's so much history that people know, and so much happened,” Smith said. “The first thing I decided was to take out almost all of the organizational details within the church. Some exceptions were in 1878 women were allowed to be deacons. The first two were Sarah Wells Lewis and Antoinette Adams Kenniston, and the two Welsh ministers in the 1870s and 1880s who brought music to the church. Rev. Lewis Darynnd Evans started the first choir and the church women bought the organ.”

“The Civil War panel speaks to the world coming to Boothbay,” Smith said, noting the help she found in Barbie. “I said to her, how am I ever going to do that war. She said I was going to have men marching off to fight.”

The Civil War panel is a powerful one, full of both colorful imagery and shadows reflecting the somber occasion and warning of the death and sorrow that would follow those young marching men.

The top of some of the panels have a banner in which a significant event is noted. The World War I panel banner is a black and white image of a battlefield. Smith chose to make that banner black and white because “that war was so bleak.” The 1945-1980s banner features various cars built during those years. Other panels have (lively) stones in the lower corners of the paintings. The final canvas is of the Congregational Church today, doors open wide with Rev. Foulger standing in the doorway, arms raised up in greeting.

Research for what became “Lively Stones” began in 2009. “One of the first things we did was scour editions of the Boothbay Register,” said Foulger. “We also spoke with some of the elder members of the church for their recollections in 2011.”

The researched, written material was then divided into 12 chapters, each spanning approximately 30 years, and the earnest writing began. Editing by Doreen Dun started in September 2015 and the book was published in late December.

“I think Sally did a wonderful job condensing 250 years into 10 mixed media panels,” Rev. Foulger said. “The response from the congregation has been positive. The panels have also sparked an interest in people from other churches to illustrate their church’s history.”

The panels will remain on exhibit at the library through Dec. 31.

Copies of “Lively Stones: The Evolution of the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor” are available at the church and Sherman’s Book & Stationery downtown, and at BHML through Dec. 31.