Here’s a peek into a box (one of six) of Ely and Lord family photographs, diaries, letters and other goodies donated to the Lyme Local Archives in August 2024 by Parker and Diana Lord! This box is filled with materials related to Isabel “Belle” Ely Lord (1871-1959). She’s second from the right in the photo….
The Essex Savings Bank has distributed funds from a $120,000 charitable budget to 84 local charities participating in its Community Investment Program according to the wishes of bank customers, expressed through ballots in a February promotion. Customers were able to select up to three charities on their ballots, and the bank tallied up the votes…
One of the advantages of living in a former artists’ colony is that these creatives have left their stamp on a number of local houses. One is the famous wood engraver and printer Thomas W. Nason’s custom built home at 282 Joshuatown Road. We know a lot about this house, designed by accomplished local architect…
The Lyme Local History Archive now has Lyme-Old Lyme High School yearbooks from 1958 through 1998! Gloria M. Maddocks, the Principal’s secretary for 42 years, originally collected these yearbooks, which were generously donated by her nephew, Peter Evankow. Gloria clearly had a close connection with the students, writing each graduating class a congratulatory letter (some…
Archives don’t just store physical documents; they also take responsibility for digital items like this fabulous scan given by the Tiffany family. In this striking image Leon H. Tiffany, Sr. (1903-1982) surveys the iconic outline of Tiffany Farms from his tractor, while holding the microphone of a Vocaline JRC 400 radio transceiver also known as…
The grave of Captain Samuel Selden (who died in 1745 at age 50) is in Marvin Cemetery on Hamburg Road, a little south of Mt. Archer Road. Lyme’s 18th century headstones are unusual: not a single one features a winged death’s head, usually depicted across New England as a skull sporting a prominent set of…
The 2023 George House Tag Sale was held at the Public Hall on Saturday, September 16 from 9 am to 1 pm. Thanks to the generous support of our community with donations of wonderful items, our hardworking volunteers who helped to stage and price the donated items, and a great turnout of shoppers on sale…
Archivist Julie Hughes has been busy as always in the Archives Room at the Lyme Public Library. She is in residence on Thursdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Here are some of the recent projects that she and community volunteer Ann Brubaker have been working on: All DVDs with moving image content in the…
Every year, Essex Savings Bank gives thousands of dollars to help aid the efforts of local non-profit organizations. This year, the bank collected member votes in February for a long list of local community organizations – and we were one of them! We recently received a donation check in the amount of $619 from Essex…
Our volunteer archivist Julie Hughes and expert community volunteer Ann Brubaker have been busy accessioning and reconciling items in our collection at the Bacdayan Local History Archives in the Lyme Public Library. Among their accomplishments this quarter: Twenty-five Polly Murray audio cassettes have been digitized, bringing the total up to sixty-seven. Work on two large…