Daphne Ely was a resident of Lyme and active community member, but before settling down in the town where her ancestors had settled, Daphne lived in Hartford and documented her life from 1911-1914 in her scrapbook. She was also an avid collector of newspaper clippings, local advertisements, and invitations to social events, and her scrapbook details four years in the life of a Hartford socialite in the early 20th century.
Carolyn Wakeman Featured Photo: Unidentified artist, A Massachusetts Militia Bandsman, ca. [...]
Carolyn Wakeman Featured Photo: Joseph Perkins house, ca. 1890, showing apple [...]
Although Florence Griswold’s unique role in the history of American art has been well documented, we have known surprisingly little about her life as head of the Griswold Home School, an educational institution which preceded the arrival of her artist boarders and occupied the four women of the Griswold family for fourteen years from 1878 to 1892. But by tracking newly uncovered historical sources, we now know much more about the workings of the school and about Florence Griswold in her position of school administrator.
In 2013 the noted silver designer Siro Toffolon donated to the Florence Griswold Museum an important collection of Revolutionary War papers relating to Capt. Jonathan Gillet of Lyme. During the course of researching and cataloguing this collection, trustee and editor Carolyn Wakeman made a fascinating discovery that is told in this posting to From the Archives.
Patterns of paper lace, festive birds and flowers, and intricately layered designs first attract a viewer to the historic Valentines in the Archives’ collection. A closer look reveals that some bear a maker’s identifying stamp.
When Lyme artists sent holiday cards to relatives and friends, they often shared original watercolors, drawings, lithographs, and woodblock prints.
Amid the recipes, medicinal cures, and obituary clippings pasted into a simple string-bound scrapbook appears a hand-written list of Judge William Noyes’ (1728–1807) slaves. Kept initially by his great-granddaughter Mary Ann Noyes Learned (1818–1875) and later maintained by her cousin Martha Noyes (1833–1874), the scrapbook documents the family’s Negro servants over four generations.
A Negro slave named Arabella, of unknown origin, served in Lyme’s first parsonage. There she attended Rev. Moses Noyes (1643–1729) and his family until she passed by will to his daughter Sarah. The original Noyes homestead has been demolished, but Arabella’s dwelling place can still be imagined from a sketch drawn by artist Ellen Noyes Chadwick (1824–1900), based on her father’s descriptions.
Valentines exchanged and collected in Old Lyme express romantic yearning, enduring friendship, and marital devotion. The earliest Valentine greetings in the Archives’ collection date from the 1850s. By the 1910s the elaborately decorated hand-made Valentines popular during the Victorian era had been replaced by smaller and less ornate printed cards and postcards.
Personalized Christmas cards showcase the creative talent of Old Lyme’s artists, many of whom painted, drew, or printed original designs each year to convey messages of holiday cheer.
Artists and photographers delight in capturing the scenic beauty of Old Lyme’s estuaries, riverbanks, and salt meadows, but the town’s waterways also serve as a repository of local history.
