Collections : [Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives]

Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives

Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives

Lyme Public Library
Local History Archives
482 Hamburg Road
Lyme, CT 06371
lymepublichall1887@gmail.com
(860) 598-9760
https://lymepublichall.org/
The Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives (LPHLHA) is a non-profit, membership organization dedicated to the appreciation of Lyme's history, culture, and community. The Lyme Public Hall, originally built in 1887, is a community gathering place. With the help of community participation, the LPHLHA puts on events and programs throughout the year including suppers, lectures, musical programs, historical programs and exhibits, walks, workshops, and more. These events and programs are open to everyone, members and non-members, locals and visitors alike. The archives section of the LPHLHA, located in the Lyme Public Library, collects and preserves historical materials about the town of Lyme, its history, culture, life-ways, institutions, and people. The archives holds historical documentary and cultural heritage materials dating from the 17th century to the present. Collections include genealogical materials, family and personal papers, institutional records, manuscripts, newspapers and clippings, books, photographs, artwork, artifacts, maps, and exhibit records from LPHLHA programs and events.
Start Over Level Collection Repository Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives

Audiovisual, 1926-2016 2 Linear Feet

The collection consists of videos and slide show documentaries created by the Lyme Public Hall Association, as well as media made independently by Lyme residents, and by local media about Lyme topics.
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Books, 1854-2016 12 Linear Feet

Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives
The Book collection contains books about Lyme, or on topics relevant to interpreting or contextualizing Lyme's history.
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Carol Hardin Kimball papers, 1880-2006 .25 Linear Feet

This collection includes research notes and drafts for Carol Hardin Kimball's contribution to Tidewaters of the Connecticut River, an Explorer's Guide to Hidden Coves and Marshes by Thomas Morley, 2000. Local subjects include notable persons and families; the history of steamboats, shipbuilding, river commerce, slaves, cemeteries and gravestone carvers, and special geological and ecological features. She was a conservationist and avid kayaker.
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Chamberlain Ferry papers, 1900-1998 2.5 Linear Feet

Chamberlain Ferry (1907-1998) spent his retirement in Lyme in the area of the Ely landing area on the Connecticut River. The bulk of the collection deals with the history of the Ely's Ferry area, and includes significant coverage relating to local environmental preservation and open spaces.
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Doris Reynolds Jewett papers, 1870-2006 1 Linear Feet

The Doris Jewett papers contain material about her childhood, teacher training, and career. They also shed light on the Lyme community, particularly the Hamburg and Sterling City areas, from the late 19th through the early 20th century.
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Edith Anderson Raymond papers, 1732-1939, bulk 1900-1939 2 Linear Feet

Raymond, Edith Anderson
The collection holds the work of professional genealogist Edith Anderson Raymond (1876-1941). The collection contains a variety of material with genealogical information on southeastern Connecticut and Lyme families including the Raymond and Bill families. The collection includes transcribed bible and church records and headstone inscriptions (Lyme, East Haddam, and selected other southeasternn Connecticut towns).
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Elizabeth Huey Putnam newspaper clippings, 1896-2003 1.5 Linear Feet

Putnam, Elizabeth Huey
Elizabeth Huey Putnam and her mother Dora Warner collected extensive news clippings about Lyme and Hadlyme from regional newspapers (Deep River New Era, New London Day, Pictorial Gazette) spanning the 20th century. They had a special interest in artists, authors, musicians, and other notable figures who lived in Lyme, local association and organization events, churches, ferries, fishing, historic houses, mills, steamships, stores, World War I and II, and a large collection of obituaries.
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Elizabeth Huey Putnam personal and historical papers, 1808-2004 5 Linear Feet

There are original documents, personal papers, and artifacts about this area and the wider town of Lyme in the mid-19th into the 20th-century. Subjects include Brockway shipbuilding, oakum manufacturing, shad fishing, and quarrying, Connecticut River navigation, World War I, and the Brockway/Joshuatown one-room school. Family materials are for LaPlace, Warner, Huey, Putnam, and Sutton. Material about her father, Robert Huey, and shad fishing, is strong. The collection reflects the deep roots of Elizabeth Putnam's family and her own lifetime (1912-2007) in the Brockway Ferry area of Lyme, CT. Her books, Brockway's Ferry, Lyme, Connecticut 1991 and a 2002 revised edition with Wendolyn Hill History and Memoir (1991 and the) hold a rich history of the Brockway Ferry, Joshuatown, and Hadlyme areas of Lyme, Conn.
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Elizebeth Bull Plimpton genealogical papers, 1968-1985 4 Linear Feet

Elizebeth Bull Plimpton (1921-1994) was Lyme municipal historian 1987-1993. Her papers hold her own and collected genealogical research on more than two hundred families of 17th – 19th century Saybrook Colony and the town of Lyme. She co-authored and work on Saybrook Colony's first settlers and Lyme. Vital Statistics of Saybrook with Verne Hall.
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Elizebeth Bull Plimpton historical papers and clippings, 1625-1994 4 Linear Feet

Plimpton, Elizebeth B. (Elizebeth Bull), 1921-1994
Elizebeth Bull Plimpton (1921-1994), Lyme town historian and a descendant of first settlers, collected an encyclopedic range of historical material about Lyme and Old Lyme, CT, strongest for the 19th to mid-20th century — artists, authors, businesses, churches, community organizations, fishing, ferries, geography, historic properties and houses, military and maritime subjects, schools and much more. There are original documents, transcriptions, research notes, manuscripts, journals and ledgers, photographs, and print materials.
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Ely family papers, 1815-2012 4 Linear Feet

The Ely papers are the papers of three prominent physicians of Lyme from the Ely family: Dr. Josiah Griffin Ely, Sr. (1829-1887), Josiah Griffin Ely, Jr. (1857-1935), and Julian Griffin Ely (1894-1980).
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First Congregational Church of Lyme records, 1789-2016 5 Linear Feet

The records relate to the period from the establishment of the Third Society of Lyme and its meeting house in 1726, the relocation of the meeting house to the Hamburg section of Lyme (1814), and the designation of the congregation as the First Congregational Church of Lyme at the time of the separation of the towns of Old Lyme and Lyme (1855). The records include the treasurer's books (1789-1871, 1912-1927) and church council minutes (1815-1904 and 1927-1946). Papers of the Rev. Enoch Fitch Burr, pastor for more than 50 years, 1870s architectural detail drawings for an unfinished neo-Gothic church to replace the 1814 church, and miscellaneous photos and reports from the late 1900s are included. William Marvin's printed address for the 200th anniversary provides an excellent historical background.
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Hadlyme Ferry Association records, 1939-1987 .25 Linear Feet

Papers contain a history of the Hadlyme Ferry Association, covering its purpose, establishment, issues and problems addressed for fifty years regarding ferry operation and Gillette State Park impact on traffic, shoreline integrity, residential quality, expansion of properties and zoning issues. Mrs. Leonora Prowell (d. 2013), resident and long-time president, figures largely in the papers.
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John Randall Sterling papers, 1850-2006 3 Linear Feet

The collection of his personal and business papers from his short life is an excellent source of information about mid 19th century Lyme family life, Connecticut River steam boat traffic, and business enterprise extending from Lyme to the big cities.
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Judy Friday papers, 1940-2003 1 Linear Feet

The history and operational detail in photographic and text form of A Year at Tiffany Farms, 2002, documenting a full year on one of few dairy farms left in Connecticut at the time. The collection provides a unique look at the operations of a small Connecticut dairy farm and its struggles.
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Ladies Benevolent Society records, bulk 1852-1990 .25 Linear Feet

The collection gives a vivid picture of charitable giving over more than 150 years by this woman's group in a small New England Congregational church. Minute books start in 1852 for the "Two Mite" society and change to "Ladies Benevolent Society" in 1896. The minutes cover the Society's meetings and the projects undertaken to benefit primarily the First Congregational Church of Lyme, called the Hamburg Church.
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Lay family papers, 1770-1902 4 Linear Feet Two manuscript boxes and several items stored in a drawer.

The personal, business, professional, legal and town office papers for three generations of the Lay family 1815 to 1902 — Daniel and David Lay of Lyme and Old Lyme, CT. There are contracts and construction documents for Oliver Lay's original Stone Mill and Bradbury's cotton factory; the Lyme-New London Turnpike, New Haven—New London; Stonington Railroad; Western Reserve properties owned by Lyme residents; fishing rights on the Connecticut River (6 Mile Island and Avery Place); and estate settlements for clients and Lay family members. Also papers of Capt. Walter Chadwick and Capt. Daniel Chadwick of Old Lyme are interesting.
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Maps, 1651-2008 5 Linear Feet

Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives
The Maps collection is made up of 19th and 20th-century maps of the Lyme, Conn. area and lower Connecticut River Valley.
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Oral histories, 1988-2010 2 Linear Feet

The Oral histories collection provides information on prominent Lyme citizens of the twentieth century, and their experiences of life in Lyme, predominantly in the early through the mid-twentieth century.
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Parker Lord papers, 1842-2011 .5 Linear Feet

Lord, Parker
The Parker Lord papers provide insight into the history of river based commerce in Lyme, local experiences of the Civil War, and the extended Ely-Lord family of Brockway and Hadlyme.
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Photographs, 1870-2016 4 Linear Feet

Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives
This large collection holds valuable visual, historical documentation of individuals, families, buildings, the cultural history and natural environment of Lyme, Conn.
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Pierson family papers, 1809-1984 .5 Linear Feet

Original material from eight generations of the Pierson family of Bill Hill, Lyme, Conn. — correspondence, hand-made "fishing book" accounts; leases to residents for shad fishing rights in the Connecticut River and shoreline; business papers for lumber and haulage; invoices and receipts for services to the Town. Many photographs include period tintypes, cartes de visite, and cabinet cards.
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Postcards, 1880-2012 1.5 Linear Feet

Lyme Public Hall & Local History Archives
The Postcards collection holds early 20th-century postcards, an important visual source about the landmarks, environment, and geography of Lyme, Conn.
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Reynolds family papers, 1923-2009 .25 Cubic Feet

The collection focuses on Ephraim O. Reynolds (1837-1916), his descendants in the Hamburg Cove area of Lyme, their entrepreneurial activities, merchandising, general store, carriage building, and automobile sales and service.
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Stark family papers, 1849-2003 2 Linear Feet

Stark family
The collection covers a prominent farm, civic, and political family of Lyme. The documents in this collection provide information about family history, town politics, government, community service; farm life and tools; the roles of children and women, Lyme Impressionist artists, women's service in World War I and II, and the life of Jennie Stark, an early twentieth century teachers and local folk-artist (rug hooking).
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Sylvia Daniels Harding papers, 1831-2004 1 Linear Feet

Harding, Sylvia Daniels
The Sylvia Daniels Harding (1911-1997) papers include her personal and many Harding, Ely, and Daniels family papers. Included are her own and her mother's diaries; photographs and vintage postcards of local sites and community life in late 19th and early 20th century Lyme — domestic life, farming, dairying, shad fishing, fur trapping, and the raw fur business, one-room schools, church, Grange, Sylvia's community work, organization memberships, and folk art "needle painting".
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Town of Lyme records, 1748-2015 8 Linear Feet

Lyme (Conn.)
The materials in this collection relate to town governance, residents, local churches, schools, and businesses in Lyme, Connecticut, from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Topics covered include how the Town supported itself and its responsibilities to the citizens: taxes, justice, welfare, road and bridge infrastructure, education and schools, legal and property affairs.
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William Beebe papers, 1782-2016 12 Linear Feet

The papers, correspondence, and genealogical research of William Beebe include more than two hundred fifty Lyme families from the 17th into the 20th century including his own Beebe and Royce families. His work includes many families in the northeast area of the town and often includes property boundary sketches.
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