Harry Hoffman Greeting Card & Artist Photographs
A large holiday card displaying a vibrant underwater sea fan, drawn and hand-colored by Harry Hoffman and sent with the message “Greetings!” to the family of Nelson White, was given by George C. White. Included in this gift to the archives are four photographs that document early Lyme colony artists and their activities.
Lower Bradbury Mill Collection
Clippings, a typescript history, and 22 photographs related to Lower Bradbury Mill, the gift of Heather Bennett, trace the eventful story of Lyme’s first gristmill and preserve images of the structure (now demolished) that artist Edward Rook painted so frequently it became known locally as “Rook’s mill.”
Photograph Album, Civil Defense Activities
An album of photographs taken by Charles T. Ludington expands the existing Civil Defense Collection. The gift of Jane and Townsend Ludington, it documents preparations for a hypothetical military strike against Old Lyme during World War II and preserves images of Lyme Street and Ferry Road in 1942.
Photograph Album, the Ludington Estate
Twelve large-scale black and white photographs of Katharine Ludington’s estate, taken ca. 1925 by New London photographer and suffragist Edna Leighton Tyler, and given by Jane and Townsend Ludington, capture the grounds, gardens, and furnishings of the family home.
John Marvin Huntley Collection
These letters and photographs relating to the descendants of John Marvin Huntley record the affairs of his extended family over four generations. Many of the letters, which describe domestic life, farm activities, and family relationships, were written in what is now called the Huntley-Brown house before it was moved from Laysville to the Florence Griswold Museum campus. Discovered by a contractor during house renovations in Tolland county, the materials passed from the Tolland Historical Society to the East Lyme Historical Society to Janet Speirs Littlefield to Carolyn Wakeman, who donated them to the archives.
Daphne Ely Scrapbook
The gift of Patricia Moll, this Memory Book compiled by Daphne Ely, a graduate of the Boxwood School, documents the active social life of a part-time Lyme resident, primarily during the years before her engagement to A. Worthington Bunnell of Norwich in 1913. Among the items preserved is the announcement of a Boxwood School alumnae luncheon.
Envelope Addressed by Woodrow Wilson
The envelope addressed by Woodrow Wilson and mailed to Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, care of Florence Griswold, Lyme, Connecticut, U.S.A., is postmarked August 24, 1908. The envelope, given by actor and Woodrow Wilson impersonator Judd Bankert, contained a letter that is now in the collection of the Woodrow Wilson Library.
Linwood Easton Letter
An October 22, 1938, letter from artist Linwood Easton (1892–1939) to Mrs. William G. Burt of Old Lyme thanking her for the purchase of an etching, was donated by Judy Archer. Easton writes “I spent many summers at Miss Florence’s, and greatly miss sojourning at Old Lyme.” His letter provides us with a new name to add to the list of artists who stayed at the Griswold boardinghouse.
Griswold Home School Circular
The undated four-page circular advertising the Griswold Home School describes its educational advantages and provides a list of references, likely supplied by Evelyn McCurdy Salisbury. A gift from the Old Lyme Historical Society, the circular came from a collection of papers belonging to the McCurdy family.
Henry C. White Photographs, Sketches, and Manuscripts
This gift from Ellie Ferguson, which includes photographs, letters, watercolor sketches, copies of drawings by Walter H. Clark and Lyme Art Colony painter Henry C. White, and the manuscript “A Sentimental Journey by an Old Traveler” by Henry C. White, significantly expands the archives’ White family collection.
Civil Defense Collection
This gift from C. Townsend Ludington, Jr., of materials created by his father Charles Townsend Ludington (1866–1927) documents civil defense activities in Old Lyme during World War II. The collection includes a film, Civilian Defense in a Small New England Community (Old Lyme, Connecticut), directed and shot by Mr. Ludington in 1942 as well as a film script, photographs, letters, a speech, a Plane Spotter’s Guide, and a Sniff Kit issued to civil defense instructors to train them to detect poison gas.