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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.

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

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

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.

The Postcards collection holds early 20th-century postcards, an important visual source about the landmarks, environment, and geography of Lyme, Conn.

This collection contains the records of the Lyme Public Hall and Local History Archives.

A collection of newspaper supplements on Lyme published by the Main Street News of Essex, Conn.

The Maps collection is made up of 19th and 20th-century maps of the Lyme, Conn. area and lower Connecticut River Valley.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Book collection contains books about Lyme, or on topics relevant to interpreting or contextualizing Lyme's history.

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.

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.

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.