James Palmer Libby, also known as “Palmer Libby” (September 20, 1928 – December 22, 2005), was an American artist of oil paintings and drawings including male nudes, landscapes, still life compositions, and domestic scenes. Born in Bangor, Maine to Beatrice C. Palmer and Lawrence P. Libby, he was primarily raised by his grandparents Mary Cameron Scott and James W. Palmer, who served on the city council, State legislature, and State Boxing Commission (being an amateur boxer himself). J. Palmer Libby’s grandfather established the first mechanical shoe manufacturing company in New England, while founding Palmer’s Shoe Repair in downtown Bangor. And, in 1944, he operated the Bangor Steam Laundry serving the troops at Bangor Army Airfield (now Bangor International Airport).
J. Palmer Libby’s colleagues included American Impressionist painter Waldo Peirce. Libby befriended Peirce during an art excursion to Searsport, Maine in the 1950s. The two men spent many hours on several occasions in Peirce’s studio in Searsport. Waldo smoking his cigar and Palmer holding his pipe, each told stories, and on a whim, Palmer injected a Puccini or Gilbert & Sullivan aria. J. Palmer Libby’s art collection included an inscribed drawing and a still life oil painting by Peirce. During the same period, Libby became friends with watercolorist Vincent Andrew Hartgen of Orono, Maine, founder and director of the art department and museum at the University of Maine at Orono. And in 1988, Libby met artist Joesph Sheppard in New York, and the two stayed in touch until Libby died of pancreatic cancer. His art collection also included drawings by Sheppard.
J. Palmer Libby received a BA and MEd from the University of Maine at Orono in 1950 and 1951, and a MA from Columbia University in 1966. He attended the Art Students League in New York in 1965 and 1966. His teaching career was mainly at Bangor High School in Maine, where he was head of the art department until 1980 when he retired.
J. Palmer Libby was conscripted into the Korean War on June 26, 1950, and served in active duty from October 30, 1951 – October 29, 1953, in the 1st Marine Division, 11th Regiment Artillery, A Company, and received the Korean Service Medal w/3, National Defense Medal, and the UN Service Medal. Working in communications, he was cleared for handling classified material.
The artist was a baritone vocalist working in the 1960s with Richard Foster, also of Bangor, who become a vocal coach at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Foster prompted Libby to pursue a singing career. However, Palmer chose visual art as his profession and instead used his vocal talents to perform at St. Theresa’s, St. Joseph’s, and Hammond Street Congregational Church. During the 1970s and 80s he worked with the Robinson Ballet Company. In the 1990s he taught art at Shaw House to abandoned youth, helping them connect with the world around them.
Libby’s art is represented in the Bangor Public Library, Isaac Farrar Mansion, and the State Capitol in Agusta, Maine, as well as private collections in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, and Maine.