A few of our favorite things

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2008

Fairfield Museum Contact:
Laura Roberts,
203-259-1598 or
Laura@fairfieldhs.org

The Fairfield Museum and History Center’s Library is one of Connecticut’s real treasures, and an invaluable repository of Fairfield’s rich historical legacy. The Library’s extensive collection of 8,000 reference works, monographs, and journals helps researchers contextualize individual documents and historical events. Its strengths include the areas of crafts and manufacturing, maritime studies, Fairfield genealogies, and historic preservation. But the best, most valuable part of the Library is its Special Collections which contain extensive manuscripts, rare books, and other “special” formats including historical photographs, maps, atlases, and ephemera. Collectively, the Fairfield Museum’s Library collection provides an important resource for the preservation and study of Fairfield’s history since its founding in 1639.

The museum’s ephemera collection is a special treasure trove of Americana. “Ephemera literally means ‘spanning a day’—that is, documents made to be used and discarded within a very short period of time,” explains Regine Heberlein, the museum’s librarian. The museum’s ephemera collection contains a wealth of materials including ticket stubs, broadsides, pamphlets, train schedules, advertisements, labels, road maps, menus, and postcards. Never intended to withstand the test of time, these documents were frequently produced cheaply, e.g. on thin and acidic paper that embrittles with age and can be extremely delicate and difficult to handle or exhibit. “Yet they hold a special appeal in primary source research because they afford us a glimpse of everyday life, a lingering sense of period atmosphere,” Heberlein says. “I think of them as time capsules.”

Another favorite of researchers who come to visit Special Collections is the Museum’s historical photograph collection. The over 3,000 items retrace the history of photographic processes, from daguerreotypes and calotypes to salted paper prints, albumen prints (which use egg white as a binder), ambrotypes, tintypes, gelatin prints and platinum prints. A collection-within-the-collection is the museum’s early photo album collection, a format that the invention of the tintype or ferrotype—a positive image on a tin backing—made popular in the 1850s. The tintype holds a special place in American history: due to its affordability, light weight, and durability, it became the prevalent keepsake of Civil War soldiers and their families. “A frequent misnomer for the tintype is ‘daguerreotype,’” explains Heberlein. “Daguerreotypes are negative images on a silver-coated copper plate. They are much rarer than tintypes and are immediately recognizable by their mirror-like surface. Owners of daguerreotypes sometimes think their photograph is faded because it is visible only at certain angles of light.”

The majority of documents in the Fairfield Museum’s Special Collections are donations from members of the community. And even after centuries, historical papers still turn up in nooks and crannies during house renovations and estate liquidations. “Earlier this year for example, we received a bundle of love letters from the 1940s that the owners of a house in Southport found inside an attic wall during remodeling,” says Heberlein. “Some had cement droplets on them.” The museum collects exclusively documents and objects that tell Fairfield’s history. Collections are often transferred to the museum by heirs or family members who wish to see the records cared for professionally in order to ensure their preservation and availability for future generations. A very significant collection acquired by the museum earlier this year is the Sturges Family Photograph Collection, which was donated by Elizabeth Meyer of Orange, CT. The collection seamlessly complements other collections of the Sturges family already housed at the Fairfield Museum. It documents one branch of the Sturges family, in particular some descendants of Philo Shelton, who was the first Episcopal priest ordained in North America (in 1785) and acted as a lay reader in Fairfield after the British invasion in 1779. The collection contains genealogical information, photographs, a scrapbook, and manuscript material pertaining to the family of Helen Hope Sturges, daughter of William Shelton Sturges and Julia Anna Thorpe Sturges. “What makes this collection a special pleasure to work with is that the donor meticulously annotated the photographs. That helps us tremendously in identifying the individuals in the pictures and assembling a more complete story,” says Heberlein. The collection is currently in processing and is anticipated to be available for study later this Fall.

Scholars travel from across the United States and abroad to consult the Museum’s Special Collections. Over the past year, the collections have been perused by visitors from 26 states and 4 countries. Researchers frequently work with the library’s extensive genealogical and local history collections to complete their genealogies, research family lore, locate a family property or grave site, or investigate the ownership history of their house. “The genealogy collection at the Fairfield Museum and History Center is unique. Its core was built from private collections starting in 1902, and it has grown to over 300 linear feet of sources from New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and other states with ties to Fairfield,” says Rod MacKenzie, Genealogist. “In addition, the museum has an extensive biography collection that helps researchers reconstruct the stories behind the dates. It’s a special pleasure to assist visitors who are looking for information about their Fairfield ancestors.”

In addition, scholars from research institutions use the collections for work on topics as varied as the history of an individual artifact which traces to Fairfield, the biographies of prominent national figures with family roots in Fairfield, and particular Fairfield events in the context of national history.

The Fairfield Museum and History Center’s Special Collections Library is open to everyone and access is free to Museum members. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 10-4; Thursday, 10-6, and Saturday and Sunday, 12-4; closed Monday. Manuscripts and other special collections items are made available upon request twice a day, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and research appointments are always available. The Fairfield Museum and History Center staff are happy to help and look forward to facilitating your exploration of our community’s rich history.

View of Southport Harbor from the Sturges House

(Image digitally stitched by library staff)

Rethinking the Pequot War

By Kevin McBride, Ph.D., and David Naumec (Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center)

Researchers Kevin McBride and David Naumec from the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center will provide a free lecture at the Fairfield Museum and History Center on Thursday, June 19 at 7pm.  The lecture, entitled The Great Swamp Fight, will discuss battle sites of the Pequot War and preliminary findings about the Pequot Swamp in Southport.  The lecture is intended to be a show and tell format, encouraging public

participation.  The researchers welcome ideas, theories, speculations or questions regarding the Pequot War or a particular battlefield site. The research team is also very interested in personal viewpoints and perspectives of the war, and encourages attendees to bring found objects that might date to the battle.

After more than 370 years the Pequot War (1636-1638) remains one of the most controversial and significant events in the Colonial and Native history. The war has been debated, discussed and analyzed for centuries in hundreds of articles, books, narratives and films. Often lost in the works of scholars and antiquarians is the fact that the Pequot War lasted more than two years, consisted of dozens of battles and skirmishes extending through Rhode Island, Connecticut and eastern New York, and was as much an inter-tribal war as it was a Pequot-English War.  The Pequot War forever changed the political and social landscape of southern New England. The massacre at Mystic Fort, as was the English intent, demonstrated to all Native people in southern New England and elsewhere the English ability and will to wage total war against real and imagined enemies. The defeat of the Pequot left a power vacuum in southern New England that initiated forty years of inter-tribal warfare as the Mohegan and Narragansett competed to replace the Pequot as the most powerful Native tribe in the region.

Irrespective of the historical significance of the war, the war continues to live on in the individual and collective memories of the descendants of the Colonists and Native peoples of southern New England.  Each year members of the Pequot Tribe gather on the anniversary of the Mystic Massacre for a “First Light” ceremony to commemorate and honor the hundreds of Pequot men, women and children who were massacred at the Mystic Fort on June 11, 1637.  The Townspeople of Groton, Old Saybrook and Fairfield memorialized the war through pageants, plays and monuments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  The John Mason statue, erected in 1889 at the site of the massacre, was removed to Windsor in 1996 and subsequently vandalized, is testimony to the ongoing debate about the war and its legacy.    

In spite of centuries of research, debate and discussion, the Pequot War remains one of the most mis-interpreted and least understood events in the Colonial and Native history of early America. Native groups through the region sought to ally themselves with the English to pursue their own political and military goals. The numerous letters and narratives of the war testify to the complexity of Native social, political, diplomatic and military relationships in the region. Natives fought alongside the Pequot throughout the war in a loose “confederacy”, and include the Western Niantic, Mohegan, several Nipmuck bands from northeastern Connecticut, the Sasqua of  Fairfield and the Quinnipiac of New Haven. There is evidence the Quinnipiac participated in the Pequot attack on Wethersfield on May 4, 1637; one of the most significant events in the war.  This attack justified an English declaration of an “offensive” and “just” war against the Pequot, and led directly to the attack on the Pequot fortified Village at Mystic a few weeks later. 

In recognition of the historical and contemporary significance of the Pequot War, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center (MPMRC) has embarked on a multi-year research project funded by the National Park Service American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) to identify and preserve battlefields and historical sites associated with the Pequot War.  The primary goal of the project is the identification of prospective battlefield sites and obtaining physical evidence of a battlefield through archaeological investigations.

The MPMRC has partnered with the Office of the Connecticut State Archaeologist, the Connecticut State Historian and many local historical societies, research centers and museums from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York to undertake a comprehensive study of all aspects of the Pequot War. The early phases of research include identification and analysis of primary narratives, accounts and descriptions of the war, a review of scholarly and antiquarian works, analysis of Inter-tribal diplomatic and political relations, analysis of Native and Colonial military strategies, understanding tactics and weapons, analysis of artifacts associated with the war, and a review of historical and contemporary perspectives and images of the war. 

The Fairfield Swamp Fight is one of the most significant events of the Pequot War and has become the main focus of research in the last few months. The numerous narratives and accounts of the battle provide valuable information on English and Pequot military tactics and weapons (including the only known reference of the use of firearms by Pequot warriors in combat), as well as important insight into the relationship between the Pequot and their native allies and tributaries. 

The Fairfield Swamp Fight is also significant because it marks the first time during the Pequot War that English policy and practice regarding war captives and combatants is clarified. Native warriors and sachems were systematically executed by the English, while women and children of high social/political status who could rebuild the shattered Pequot tribe were sold into slavery outside of the colonies. Approximately two dozen Pequot and Sasqua women and children were sold into slavery to English colonists at Providence Island off the coast Nicaragua and the Isle of Nevis in the Lesser Antilles. The remainder of the 180 women and children captured at the Fairfield Swamp Fight were sold or given to English colonists in Connecticut or Massachusetts Bay. 

The settlement of Fairfield which occurred less than a year after the Fairfield Swamp Fight was a direct result of the battle that took place at Pequot Swamp. When the Sasqua surrendered to the English in the midst of the battle they ceded all rights to their lands by right of conquest. The core group of the first Fairfield settlers, including notable Connecticut colonist Roger Ludlow future governor of Connecticut, were primarily soldiers who fought at Fairfield Swamp.

In the centuries following the end of the Pequot War, the Pequot Swamp Fight continues to be memorialized as a seminal event in Colonial and Native history.  In one of the historical ironies of the Pequot War, the memory and name of Pequot people, declared to be extinct in the Treaty of Hartford, continued to persist in the many monuments, places and  edifices that bear the Pequot name in Fairfield-  a lasting testament to the legacy of the Pequot War.

Fairfield Museum and History Center is located at 370 Beach Road in Fairfield CT, behind Old Town Hall.  For more information about this lecture and all the other events and programs the museum offers, please visit www.fairfieldhs.org or call 203-259-1598.

Welcome Summer Interns

The Fairfield Museum and History Center Library and Special Collections is pleased to host three summer interns:

Nate Nagy (Columbia University) will re-house and inventory the Architectural Drawings Collection.

RJ DiDomenico (Southern Connecticut State University) will reformat our finding aids using Archivist's Toolkit.

Steve Antonelli (University of Connecticut--Storrs) will assist in conducting an inventory of our general and rare book collections.

A warm welcome to Nate, RJ, and Steve!

Preserve your Heirlooms--Workshops Now Going On!

How do you assess, store, clean, and display your beautiful paintings? Come learn how to do it right in this second workshop in our Caring for Keepsakes series! Workshops are hands-on and interactive--bring your questions, bring your painting, bring a friend!

Dr. Philip Eliasoph will use examples from the museum to demonstrate what to look out for. Participants will learn how to judge the condition of their paintings and what measures to take to preserve them.

Preserving Your Art Collection. Wednesday, January 30, 7pm with Dr. Philip Eliasoph, Professor of Art History, Fairfield University.

What's New in 2008?

Welcome to the Library and Special Collections! What's new in 2008? We are pleased to announce the following brand-new additions to our reference and manuscript collections:

James Brilvitch. A History of Connecticut’s Golden Hill Paugusset Tribe, 2007. Donated by Barbara Bryan.

Pay order for Lt. James Chapman, signed by Oliver Wolcott, 1784. Donated by Paul Brzozowski.

John W. DeForest. History of the Indians of Connecticut from the Earliest Known Period to 1850, 1852. Donated by Priscilla Chatfield in Memory of Kenneth Chatfield Smith.

Charles DeWolf Brownell. The Indian Races of North and South America, 1855. Donated by Priscilla Chatfield in Memory of Kenneth Chatfield Smith.

Regimental order to Capt. John Fayerweather (5th Companie). Donated by Paul Brzozowski.

Levi French’s 1863 Civil War diary. Donated by Paul Brzozowski.

Anne Galicich. The German Americans, 1989. Library Purchase.

Richard Irving Dodge. Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three Years' Personal Experience Among the Red Men of the Great West, 1882. Donated by Priscilla Chatfield in Memory of Kenneth Chatfield Smith.

James Lomuscio. Village of the Dammed. The Fight for Open Space and the Flooding of a Connecticut Town, 2005. Donated through our Adopt-a-Book Program by Doug Moore.

David McCullough. John Adams, 2001. Donated by Patti Spaght.

David McCullough. John Adams, The Illustrated Edition, 2001. Donated by Patti Spaght.

New York-New Haven railroad schedule, 1862. Donated by Paul Brzozowski.

The Perry Family Papers. Donated by Hop Perry.

John H. Roy, Jr. A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses, 2007. Donated through our Adopt-a-Book program by Marcia Miner, town historian.

The Sturges Family Photos. Donated by Elizabeth Meyer.

Travel voucher for Andrew Wheeler, authorized and signed by General Gould Selleck Silliman, 1777. Donated by Paul Brzozowski.

Welcome Fall Interns!

The Fairfield Museum and History Center Library and Special Collections is pleased to host an archives intern this fall:

Dan Strong (Sacred Heart University) will work on entering legacy finding aids into Archivist's Toolkit. The internship will earn Dan credit in Sacred Heart's history department; his supervisor is Paul Siff.