Seventeen-year-old Betsy James just wanted to see if her new acquaintance, 22-year-old Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), would go inside the 16-room farmhouse in Cushing, Maine, to meet her adult friend Christina Olson. Many wouldn’t, she said, because of the smell and the odors^2(p144) that were magnified by the heat on that hot summer's day in July 1939. Christina (1893-1969) had been physically handicapped since childhood, and it was difficult for her to keep the farmhouse clean. Betsy tended to ignore her disability and enjoyed being with her, picking flowers in her garden, and listening to Christina's stories about her ancestor John Hathorn, who presided as chief judge at the Salem witch trials.³ Wyeth, Betsy's future husband, passed her litmus test that day; he did go in.³ Soon afterwards . . . [Full Text of this Article]