Collections : [Mattatuck Museum]

The Elton family have been members of the Waterbury and Watertown community since the mid 1700s and were farmers, businessmen, and medical doctors. This collection documents the professional and personal relations of several members largely through correspondence and administrative papers spanning the 1800s. The largest quantity of materials in the collection are the medical books, passed down from generation to generation. Of special interest are several family and local histories.

The Medical and Scientific Collection contains various medical journals and personal documents regarding illness. Documents include various notebooks kept during medical school as well as during practice by several Waterbury doctors. Also included in the collection are city announcements on recent outbreaks of diseases such as Typhoid fever and on the effectiveness of the smallpox inoculation. Also represented are various personal accounts regarding illnesses such as whooping cough.