The Cornish Colony was one of the first artist colonies in the United States. Beginning with sculptor, Augustus St. Gaudens in 1885, the colony grew to include painters, sculptors, decorators, illustrators, an architect, landscape designers, novelists, journalists, playwrights, poets, critics, essayists, composers, musicians, theatrical performers and patrons of the arts, from Boston and particularly
from New York.

Inspired by the natural beauty of the river valley and Mt. Ascutney but also the unique creative camaraderie, the colonists fostered intellectual and artistic life in the area. Although named after a town in New Hampshire, the Cornish Colony was spread over Windsor, Vermont, as well as the villages of Plainfield and Cornish, New Hampshire.  Many of the colonists came from New York City via train and arrived at the Windsor Station which still stands today. Windsor was the postal code and town center for the entire area. Windsor will be the physical and creative center for the Cornish Colony Arts Council. 

A partial list of Cornish Colonists:​

Adeline Pond Adams, poet and art historian

 Herbert Adams, sculptor

Ethel Barrymore, actress

George de Forest Brush, painter

Winston Churchill, American novelist

Kenyon Cox, painter and muralist

Thomas Dewing, painter

Marie Dressler, actress

Isadora Duncan, dancer

Barry Faulkner, muralist and mosaicist

Daniel Chester French, sculptor

Henry Brown Fuller, painter

Learned Hand, judge

Percy MacKaye, dramatist

Paul Manship, sculptor

Rose Standish Nichols, garden designer, writer, and activist

Maxfield Parrish, painter and muralist

Stephen Parrish, painter and etcher

Maxwell Perkins, editor

Charles A. Platt, architect and garden designer

Edith Prellwitz, painter

Henry Prellwitz, painter

Frederic Remington, painter, sculptor and author

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor

Louis St. Gaudens, sculptor and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' brother

Everett Shinn, painter and illustrator

Florence Scovel Shinn, illustrator and writer

Ellen Biddle Shipman, landscape architect

Bessie Potter Vonnoh, sculptor

Robert Vonnoh, painter

 Woodrow Wilson, American president

William Zorach, sculptor