Marion Craine was a retired social worker and a regular library user who was interested in women’s issues, true crime, and mysteries. Originally from Chicago, she retired to Orleans where she owned a home at 27 Beach Road for ten years. She and her lifelong friend, Miriam Norris, eventually moved to the Orleans Retirement Center where she died in March 1983. After Miriam Norris’ death in July 1987, the remainder of Marion Craine’s estate ($200,000) was donated to the Snow Library building fund of 1991-1992. The gallery is named in her honor.

In 2020, the Marion Craine Gallery celebrates its 25th year. Little did we know when it was dedicated that the gallery would be the setting for more than 200 shows by Cape Cod artists. Overseen by the Marion Craine Gallery Committee, which operates under the authority of the Snow Library Board of Trustees, the gallery’s original purpose was to give emerging artists a professional space in which to show their work, and this continues today.

On July 5, 1995, the first show, “American Impressionism and the Cape Cod School of Art,” included works by Charles W. Hawthorne, founder of the school, and his successor Henry Hensche. It also featured artists such as Lois Griffel, the school’s director at the time, a well as Rosalie Nadeau, Michelle D’Angelo, Kate Nelson and Peggy Jo Dunn. This remarkable show set the stage for the caliber of exhibitions to come.