Hi,
My name is Richard Brooks. From about 1953 to 1958 I was taught how to build dioramas and to assist in painting black lite displays for planetariums by a Thomas Voter.
This was at the Hudson River Musuem in Yonkers NY. He was the illustrator for the book ALL About Whales. I went to the AMNH with him many times and know he did many of the paintings in the Hayden Planentarium.
I found your post while looking for more information on Mr. Voter. I was trying to find out what years he worked at AMNH and his position.
Is this the Voter you want to know about?

Hi......my name is Valerie Voter and yes that would be my grandfather Thomas Voter. I only know that he worked there in the fifties I think as an art director. And yes he also worked at the Yonkers museum. He did paint alot of the old Hayden Planetarium and there was a plaque outside it with his name.
He illustrated a few of the "All about..." books with the Whales being called his best artwork. And I was told that he did alot of the artwork on the backdrops (dioramas) in the Hall of mammals.
But I only remember him through the late sixties--early seventies where we took vacation at his home in Georgetown, Maine with him and his third wife Katherine (Kitty).
His home was quite unique as it was decorated with leftovers from the museum (zebra and snow leopard rugs, stuffed owls and pheasant, antelope antlers, all kinds of rocks and minerals etc). And he had a studio full of everything an artist could want. I had the best times there!
But he passed away of a massive coronary in about 1974. His oldest son John (my uncle) is also an artist and resides in California.
Thank you for your reply, sorry I don't have very accurate info on the years he worked at the museum as it was all before my time.

Hi Valerie, my name is Timothy. Your Grandfather Thomas Weston Voter is my Great Uncle. My Grandmother, Nellie Elizabeth Voter (Brown) is Thomas's sister. You and I have the same Great Grandparents in Clarence & Almedeia (Wentworth) Voter. I have been fishing with your Grandfather when I was a boy around 1970 or so. I remember my mother who is Ann Elizabeth (Brown) Miller, Thomas's neice telling me not to touch anything in your Grandfather's house there in Georgetown during our visit. As a boy looking at all the interesting things in that home I was tempted to touch, however no matter where I went it seemed that the stuffed Owl watched me and kept me honest. Valerie I have signed All about.. books by Thomas as well as some of his water color paintings. I have a super picture of your Grandfather and my Grandmother at about ages three and four posing with our Great Grandmother Almedeia who my Grandmother Nellie Elizabeth would refer to as "Nanny". I have met and talked with Greatgrandmother "Nanny" at age 6 and still remember her. Anyway, I am excited to share with you in anyway I can. I am not sure what relation we are, cousins or not, we are family and I love family. I hope to hear from you soon so we can share more family history as well as present day updates. Thanks for your time and kind considerations Valerie. T.

My name is John McCarthy. I can add the following though nothing of real genealogical significance. I believe Tom and my father (John) and a man named Bill Leader knew each other from high school in Rumford, ME. Bill and his wife Tea and my parents remained lifelong friends. Tom and eventually Kitty visited often at our restaurant in Naples, ME, in the 1950s and 60s. Tom painted all four walls of the restaurant dining room with various nautical paintings. (I am sorry to say that after the restaurant was sold in the late sixties the paintings were overpainted though I have some recollection of at least one being cut out of the wall and preserved. The paintings were truly remarkable.) I recall seeing the Roy Chapman's All About books for which Tom did the illustrations. We have a couple of Voter paintings--one of the dunes at Georgetown. The other is a portrait of an older man.
When I was a child in Naples Tom offered my friend and I a dollar for each box turtle we could capture and turn over to him each summer. I recall that during some of the summers he had some kind of employment with a summer camp in Bridgton or Harrison, ME. I have a clear vision of Tom's face and his fun loving attitude. There was always great excitement and fun when Tom visited. After his death we visited with Kitty once at the Georgetown residence. I recall also his work at Yonkers but I never had the opportunity to see the museum while he was there.
I was very interested to read the notes from Tom's descendants. In our family he was always called "Voter". John