Collections : [Stanley-Whitman House]

The Stanley-Whitman House archival repository offers a comprehensive collection documenting Farmington, Connecticut's historical, cultural, and social evolution and its connections to broader regional and national narratives. The repository contains correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, rare books, legal and municipal records, architectural drawings, and maps that span the 17th through 20th centuries.Key topics include Indigenous history, with materials related to the Tunxis people, such as the 1684 Agreement of English with the Indians, deeds involving Tunxis individuals like Cusk, and publications like Connecticut Indian Trails, Villages, and Sachemdoms. Slavery and abolition are represented by W.O. Blake's History of Slavery and the Slave Trade (1858), a 1756 bill of sale for an enslaved man signed by John Stanley, and correspondence from Austin F. Williams, a notable abolitionist.The repository also contains extensive architectural documentation, including Rudy J. Favretti, Hammerberg, and Kelly's 1930s and 1980s restoration plans of the Stanley-Whitman House, as well as excavation records from 1986. Visual works include architectural drawings, photographs of Farmington's historic buildings, and the Klauser Family Photo Album.Other highlights include genealogies and family papers of the Whitman, Stanley, Morton, and Gay families; materials on the Amistad case and its Farmington connections; records of the Farmington Canal; and personal diaries and account books reflecting colonial and early American life. The collection includes scrapbooks from the Farmington Museum, maps like the Topographical Atlas of Connecticut, and records documenting the cultural and economic history of the area.With its breadth of topics and resources, the Stanley-Whitman House repository provides an invaluable resource for scholars researching Indigenous history, slavery, abolition, architectural preservation, and Farmington's cultural legacy.