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This large collection holds valuable visual, historical documentation of individuals, families, buildings, the cultural history and natural environment of Lyme, Conn.

The Manuscripts collection contains information covering numerous aspects and periods of Lyme history.

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.

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.

Gertrude "Trudy" Harding Emerson (1921-2013) lived her entire life on Bill Hill, Lyme, Conn., and collected many unpublished manuscripts and news articles about the area.

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.

Photographs by Winifred Webster of Hamburg Fair, farmer personalities, and landmark structures in Lyme.

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.

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.

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".