Preparing for the 300th: Litchfield Connecticut Community Digitization Project

FAIN: PY-253079-17

Litchfield Historical Society (Litchfield, CT 06759-0385)
Linda Marie Hocking (Project Director: May 2016 to August 2019)

In preparation for the town of Litchfield’s 300th anniversary, the Litchfield Historical Society (LHS) would hold a digitization day to collect materials about the town and its history, with a focus on highlighting the community’s artifacts.  Litchfield is the site of an early law school whose alumni include Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun, and homes designed by modernists, such as Breuer, Neutra, and Durell Stone, for the New York elites who summered in the town.  At the same time, the economy of Litchfield also relied on dairy farming and manufacturing.  Recognizing that its collections to date include more items related to Litchfield’s wealthier and seasonal residents, LHS would present an online exhibit based on newly digitized materials that would be inclusive of the wider community.  Public programming events would include a personal digital archiving day, preservation workshops, and a walking tour.

The Litchfield Historical is seeking a $12,000 Common Heritage Grant for a project which will launch its participation in the town of Litchfield's 300th Anniversary Celebration in 2019. LHS will partner with the Connecticut State Library (CSL) to gather, digitize and manage material held in private hands in an effort to more fully document all areas of Litchfield history. By focusing on documents, photographs, recordings and oral histories that are important to current residents the digitization project will bring the shared memories of the community to LHS, sending the clear message that we care about what the residents see as significant to the town's history. LHS will gain rich material documenting twentieth and twenty-first century Litchfield for use in the planned 300th Anniversary exhibition, as well as future online exhibits and publications.