Researchers often visit the Old Academy Research and Genealogical Library looking for photographs of certain events or individuals from the 17th and 18th centuries. On more than one occasion, I have had to pause and explain the evolution of photography...

Continue reading Snapshot of Photographic History

One of Wethersfield's favorite sons quietly returned to town recently.  Lt. Jonathan Church represented the United States as one of its first Marines in the closing years of the 18th century.  He retired from active service to start a new...

Continue reading Lt. Jonathan Church, A Wethersfield Marine

The Deming-Standish House has a prominent place in the center of Wethersfield's old village, on a piece of land at the corner of Main and Marsh Streets, near the Meetinghouse. The town land records show David Webb selling this one...

Continue reading History of the Deming-Standish House (1787)

The Wethersfield Grange Patrons of Husbandry was a local branch of the National and State movement that was established after the Civil War. On December 4, 1867 the National Grange of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry was founded...

Continue reading The Wethersfield Grange Patrons of Husbandry

Wongunks in Pyquag   Residents often forget that the European migration and settlement of Connecticut was not the beginning of this land's history. Native Americans can be traced long before John Oldham and the Adventurers. The first Native Americans are believed...

Continue reading Terramuggas: Sachem of the Wongunks

Care for a cup of tea? At the turn of the 19th century it was not quite as easy to obtain the medicinal and pricey tea leaves as it is today. A mariner would have to bring tea back to...

Continue reading Captain John Hurlbut's Tea Caddy

In celebration of the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center's twentieth anniversary as a museum and cultural center, this collection blog topic is the building itself. How can a building be an object? It can and it is! The Keeney Memorial Cultural...

Continue reading Keeney Memorial Cultural Center: A Building With Many Uses

If a picture is worth a thousand words, have you seen an image of one of our new accessions at the Wethersfield Historical Society? The image is of an 1875-1876 Workbox (jewelry box) created by a loving husband to express...

Continue reading John Lee Powell's Workbox