Spotlight on…19th Century American Trade Cards
Written by Anne Berard, Reference& Outreach Librarian, Milford Town Library While the earliest advertising cards first circulated in London, Lyon and Paris in the late 17th century, advances in color lithography and printing in the 19th century made them easier to produce and more ubiquitous. Everything from soap, thread, perfume, hats, shoes, coffee, candy and more were marketed…
New Collections Added to Digital Commonwealth in September
This month’s total items added is 6,077. That includes a couple of substantial collections: The Boston Public Library’s Press Photography from the Brearley Collection at 1,138 items and the Historical Society of Old Newbury’s Snow Historical Photograph Collection at 1,279 items. Dennis Brearley collected the works of Boston photojournalists from the 1920s-1970s. A representative photo…
A Closer Look: Pageant at Glendale, 150th anniversary of Wilbraham
by Mary Bell, Assistant Director Wilbraham Public Library This unassuming photograph of a couple in a horse-drawn carriage and two men standing outside is the best proof I have of Wilbraham’s involvement in the Underground Railroad. Handwriting on the photograph describes this scene as part of a pageant during Wilbraham’s 150th anniversary in 1913, and…
Spotlight on…The Glendale Collection at the Wilbraham Public Library
by Mary Bell, Assistant Director Wilbraham Public Library The Glendale Collection is a treasure-trove of local history and genealogy, and is the newest in the Wilbraham Public Library’s collections in the Digital Commonwealth. The collection was in an unlabeled box of miscellaneous photographs found among our uncatalogued collections. We gave it the name Glendale Collection…
New Collections Added to Digital Commonwealth in August
It’s the quirky collections that will delight you if you give them a chance. Not that there isn’t incredible value in six collections added by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Canton Public Library’s Canton Historical Commission Photos or the Boston Public Library’s Thaxter/Fields correspondence. Some people will be so pleased yet more nautical charts…
New Collections Added to Digital Commonwealth in July
Although summer slips away too quickly for some of us, those of us who wilt in the heat and humidity are happy to see the end of July. If you’re not, don’t fret. August is promising more of the same. The Boston Public Library was busy this month, adding to the Leslie Jones Collection as…