Diane Marburger, Butler County treasurer, stands next to artwork by the late county commissioner Joan Chew at the Butler Government Center in Butler on Tuesday, April 18. Chew, the county’s first woman commissioner, died in 2021. Marburger found the paintings and other relics while settling Chew's estate and asked the court's permission to hang them inside the pedestrian bridge to the courthouse. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

Three paintings recently hung for public display show a little known or forgotten side of an adept, barrier breaking county politician and philanthropist.

Paintings by the late Joan Chew, who ascended from teaching elementary school at Center Avenue Elementary School in Butler to become county treasurer and then the first female Butler County commissioner, have been hung in the county Government Center after being discovered following her death in 2021.

Chew's painting depicting a scene along Slippery Rock Creek and her oil paintings of the county courthouse and Diamond Park are displayed in the walkway connecting the courthouse and government center.

County Treasurer Diane Marburger, a friend of Chew's and executor of her estate, said she had been in Chew's home in Butler many times, especially in her waning years, but never looked around the house until she died.