A Creative Collaboration from Elizabeth McDaid and Marie Martin: “Exploring Hingham’s Downtown” with Their Coloring Book-Meets-Scavenger Hunt Adventure

Sunday, October 25, 2020 by Gabrielle S. Martin

Elizabeth McDaid and Marie Martin, the last two of the ten Martin children, grew up in South Hingham. They say, “Our parents encouraged all of us to be creative, to explore, to read a lot, and to learn a lot,” so it would seem it makes sense that the Hingham-based sister twosome put their talents together to create something incredible in response to the coronavirus pandemic: presenting “Exploring Hingham’s Downtown,” a creative coloring book-meets-scavenger-hunt-adventure, filled with fun facts about the town that we love.

“The book has everything from science to history, art to geography!” Elizabeth says. 

Read on to get the scoop on everything about this creative collaboration.

The Process

It was Marie, a high school English teacher, who first came up with the initial idea for a Hingham-centric coloring book. She shares, “A couple years ago on a whim, I took the Hingham Cemetery Tour and was really impressed by the events represented there. I often walk through that area around Downtown Hingham because it’s just so beautiful; this summer, as I was walking through that area, I got the idea to create this book.”

Elizabeth, Marie’s older sister who owns and operates the Hingham-bases business Master Associates in Senior Homecare, explains, “Marie wanted to create something fun for the children of Hingham and their parents to do together that would be fun and safe during this unprecedented pandemic. The scavenger hunt component of our historical coloring book is designed to take families outdoors and get them learning about their town.”

“This pandemic has forced us all to step back and just be with each other in different ways than we were used to; it has really brought us all closer as families and given us the opportunities to explore our surroundings together. What better way to do this than with a scavenger hunt through our downtown?” She poses.

Marie began by reading The Hingham Historic Society’s online documents, through which she says, “I learned a great deal about the town’s geology, early socioeconomic life, and history.” After deep-diving into Hingham’s history, Marie took to the town: she headed through Downtown taking photos and notes. She admits, “The preparation took many hours of work, but for me it was interesting, plus I really thought families would enjoy it once the booklet was finished so that made it all worthwhile.”

Marie says, “From there, Beth did the beautiful sketches. She’s an artist and I’m a teacher, so our skills are combined and complement each other in working on this book. It was a four-week process of long days at the drawing board. Once she finished, Beth and I assembled the prototype and brought it to the printers. Unfortunately, the pandemic really slowed down the printing because there were business closures at the beginning and then once everyone re-opened, there was a back-log, so it took longer than expected. We had hoped to have the book ready right after Labor Day, but that did not happen.”

However, they were able to have their copies to share and sell at the Hingham Arts Walk over the weekend.

Division of Labor

Elizabeth, better-known around the block of her Hope Road neighborhood as “Beth,” is the artist behind the coloring sketches: “I’m an artist by trade, but I’ve never attempted anything like this: creating drawings in a coloring book-style. It’s definitely a lot harder than it looks.”

Her sister Marie, ever in strong support, shares, “But Beth is such a talented artist! She did such a great job. She was one of the reasons I wanted to create the booklet: I knew her art work would be attractive and fun for people.”

Marie adds, “The drawings were definitely a bit more difficult than people would think, because they had to be simple line drawings, not too detailed, but still recognizable and artsy. Every drawing Beth finished, she would have me look at it to make sure it was coloring-book-ready, and they were: the drawings are excellent.”

“I did about 37 of them and enjoyed it thoroughly,” Beth says. “Marie wrote the book rather quickly, and being a high school English teacher, she wrote it beautifully! She is very organized and creative in her own right; I just created what she asked me to do. It took me about four or five weeks to complete the artwork.”

Working With A Sibling

The Martin sisters seemed to enjoy their time working on this creative endeavor together. 

Beth shares: “It was great working with Marie on this, as she is so organized and precise and on target and well... I am so not!” The artist laughs and adds, “Really, I’m all over the place usually and organization is really not a word in my vocabulary; I needed her help keep me focused on the task at hand! We both pretty much kept it fun. The work was hard but so worth it!”

The dynamic duo are thrilled by the final product! They share their hopes that the families of Hingham will have fun exploring and learning more about the region in which they live. “We hope those who purchase it will have the fun it was created to be!” Beth says.

Marie also suggests not to stress or rush through the adventure of it all: “The scavenger hunt could easily be divided into a couple days of activities: one on the Downtown streets, another on the Cemetery itself. I even added a trivia page and word search to the book! We just wanted to incorporate as many creative activities as possible into one booklet about our town and really map it out, so people can simply enjoy being together and exploring.”

So, remember: support local, learn local, and keep it fun (locally)! 

Pricing and Where to Purchase

Each coloring book-scavenger hunt-field guide is priced at $18.00; 2 can be purchased for $35. Orders should be sent to McDaid31@comcast.net. Please title the email as “Exploring Hingham’s Downtown” and include the following information in the message:

• Your name,
• Your address,
• Your phone number,
• # of books.