Archives Posts – Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives

New Donation from Parker and Diana Lord offers glimpse into Belle Lord’s life & wit in 1913

August 26, 2024

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. Belle appears to have been quite the character, keeping a detailed record of every book she read and producing yearly

Thank you to Essex Bank Members for 2024 Voting in Community Investment Program!

June 24, 2024

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 to determine what percent of the funds each organization would receive. We are pleased to report that the Lyme Public

Artist Thomas W. Nason’s home on Joshuatown Road in Lyme

April 6, 2024

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 Alberta Pfeiffer in 1938, because former owner Charles L. Hatton recently donated original correspondence, photographs, and other materials to our

Wishing you had saved that old Lyme-Old Lyme High School Yearbook? We can help.

January 23, 2024

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 of which were found tucked into their respective yearbooks). Thanks to Gloria and Peter, anyone who wants to look up

Tiffany Farm photo features Leon Tiffany using latest technology

December 29, 2023

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 an AM radio telephone or, in modern parlance, a CB radio. That radio came out in 1956, helping to date

Gravestone Images Unique to Lyme

November 20, 2023

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 grimacing (occasionally grinning) teeth, as depicted in this local news article. Instead of these stark reminders of the terrifying potential

Thank you for a successful 2023 George House Tag Sale!

September 18, 2023

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 day despite the blustery remnants of Hurricane Lee, we had a very successful sale. We raised over $4000 which will

2023 News from the Bacdayan Local History Archives

July 5, 2023

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 collection have been digitized Fifteen additional Polly Murray audio cassettes have been digitized, bringing the total up to 102 Work

4th Quarter 2022 Update from the Archives

December 28, 2022

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 boxes of documents and ledgers from papers of the fraternal order the Knights of Pythias, ca. 1920-1940, has been completed.

Local History Archives Now a Family Search Affiliate!

November 17, 2022

The Bacdayan Local History Archives at the Lyme Public Library is now an Affiliate Library for FamilySearch. FamilySearch is an international nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records to help people research their ancestors and family history. As an affiliate library, the Archives can provide access to additional digital records not available to the general public. Currently, there are about 400 million original records available in a digital format to affiliate libraries, including: Land and

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