Library Exhibition—

Historical Images Archive Opens A Window On Newtown’s Past

By Shannon Hicks

A glimpse into a collection of rare historic photographs of Newtown is just what the public can expect when they visit “Passport to Newtown’s Past,” either during its opening celebration on July 30 or any time while it is on view at C.H. Booth Library, which will continue until August 31.

The exhibition presents a rare look at those who have lived in this town, worked its land, built its homes and buildings, and enjoyed its natural resources.

The special exhibition will be made up of “a photographic sampling of our town’s new and extensive resource, the Newtown Historical Images Archive,” says Andrea Zimmermann, the director of the archive, who says the timing of the show is coincidental to a major anniversary for Newtown. “I knew we would have some kind of showing once these photos were available, but I’m happy that we’re able to do this now during the tercentennial.”

The exhibition will offer 36 digital prints of archive images, 35 of which will be printed at 11 by 14 inches. “Passport” is being sponsored by The Friends of C.H. Booth Library.

Among the photos on view will be class photos, the 1912 Newtown High School football team, workers laying down the main floor over the foundation of Edmond Town Hall, a 1916 tennis match at Newtown Country Club, photos of general stores, and crews of men clearing snow-covered roadways with shovels.

One photo shows Al Nichols and his father, Andrew B. Nichols, putting the regilded rooster on the steeple of Newtown Congregational Church (now the meetinghouse). That photo will be accompanied by a few paragraphs from Newtown Remembered: An oral history of the 20th century, a book published by Newtown Historical Society in 2002. Most photos will be accompanied by a photos and at least a date.

“Not only is this a great thing for Newtown, but [the exhibition] has reached outside Newtown in its creation,” Ms Zimmermann said.

Connecticut Photographics of Danbury has done the new prints for the exhibition. All of the digitized images are carbon pigment inkjet prints, or giclée. The images are on acid-free Hahnemühle German etching paper, which is a very sturdy, “toothy” paper.

Cathy Vanaria and Mark Savoia of Connecticut Photographics were major consultants to the exhibit. They also donated what has become the exhibit’s signature photograph, a 32-by-38-inch farm scene that was rescued from a scratchy plate glass negative.

That particular image continues to amaze Ms Zimmermann, and grabs the attention of anyone viewing it for the first time.

A glass plate image that had a number of scratches on it originally appeared only to show a girl in a dress sitting on a swing, looking out at a field. It was a dark deteriorated image.

Now that Ms Vanaria and Mr Savoia have worked with the negative and created a print from it, much more has been discovered. It turns out the girl on the swing was in fact facing the photographer, not the field. A young boy, presumably her brother, is to the viewer’s right, sitting in a chair and holding a cat.

Out in the field, what Ms Zimmermann initially thought was “just some farm animal” is in fact a horse with a cart and a farmer. Even further back in the field, another man is pitching hay atop a large pile in another cart. Two horses are standing next to the cart, and another man is standing atop the hay load.

“This blows me away! The more you look at it, the more you see,” said a very excited Ms Zimmermann. “The crispness of this print, from that deteriorating negative — which was one from a series donated by Ernest William Sniffen — is just amazing.”

She knows that the photo was shot in 1908 thanks to notes on the sleeve in which the negative was donated, but not much else is known about the image.

“We don’t know where it is exactly, but we know that this is Newtown or Sandy Hook for sure,” said Ms Zimmermann. “What we’re hoping for now is that someone will come along and recognize part of a building, or the landscape, or even the children.”

Also helping with the exhibition is the artist Chris Durante, who has a framing studio in Danbury. Mr Durante donated custom-cut mattes for the photos.

“I started to get into a jam with getting the photos matted,” Ms Zimmerman said. “I had originally planned to use precut mattes, which are very easy to find and not too expensive.

“The problem is, the photos are from many eras, and of many different styles, and so they’re all different sizes,” she said. “We didn’t want to crop anything, of course, and custom mattes can be very expensive. Then Chris Durante stepped in. That was a godsend.”

Even Newtown Hardware has helped with the exhibition, donating the glass to finish the framing of the images.

“People have come from everywhere to help with this exhibition,” Ms Zimmermann said. “It’s been just remarkable.”

Ms Zimmermann is a Newtown resident, a member of Newtown Historical Society, a librarian at C.H. Booth Library, a freelance writer, and, as of earlier this month, a published author. She had a number of reasons for creating The Newtown Historical Images Archive (NHIA), which she has been working on since late 2002.

“The purpose of [this] project,” Ms Zimmermann wrote when she was creating the protocol and mission statement for grant applications, “is to rescue and preserve photographs that document life in Newtown primarily between 1880 and 1980, make available copies of these images, and educate the public about our local heritage.

“The short-term goal,” she continued, “is to unify, catalog, and offer for public use, three known and significant collections — images currently held by Newtown Historical Society; the Mitchell/Goodrich photographic survey of historic homes in Newtown; and pertinent images by The Newtown Bee. The C.H. Booth Library Holdings will also be included in the archive.

“The long-term goal is to collect and preserve images that would otherwise by lost by way of deterioration or abandonment,” her proposal continued. “Photographs will be solicited from older residents, local collectors, businesses, acquired from estates, and purchased from ephemera dealers.

“The images will be carefully selected based on the quality of the print, subject matter, rarity, potential use and educational value, and ‘endangerment.’”

Ms Zimmermann began the project as an enterprise for Newtown Historical Society. In 2003, she applied for and received a Meserve Foundation grant of nearly $5,000, which was used for photo-specific equipment.

“We got the best equipment, all photo specific, but weren’t able to use any of that money to pay for supplies or even to cover for someone’s work time. The grant amount was perfect, though,” said Ms Zimmermann. “It covered exactly what we needed and we were able to get started.”

The historical society was able to match the Meserve funds, which allowed Ms Zimmerman to purchase additional supplies such as paper, ink cartridges, archival sleeves and storage boxes, CDs, and gloves.

The historical society’s funds also allowed Ms Zimmermann to hire a college student to scan photographs. Liz Conti has been working on the collection for just over a year.

To date, Ms Zimmermann and Ms Conti have digitized the historical society’s entire collection, approximately 2,500 images. They have also worked on the library’s collection, which is smaller in number but just as significant in importance.

The project, while important to the historical society, was also borne as a tribute by Ms Zimmermann to her late sister Roberta (Zimmermann) Jones.

“Photography was so important to her,” Ms Zimmermann said last week. Her sister, a Newtown-based photographer, wife, and mother, died in August 2002 after a battle with cancer. It was just a few months later that Ms Zimmermann — an enthusiastic amateur photographer herself — began her massive undertaking. “I wanted to do something that would honor her, and this is my way of doing that.”

The archive collection includes more than 600 glass plate negatives in addition to some film negatives and slides.

In addition to preserving the visual information of each image, the provenance of each photograph is being carefully researched and maintained.

“[Town Historian] Dan Cruson has been amazing to work with as well,” Ms Zimmermann said. “He has lent his invaluable expertise, as he does to all historical projects in town.

“It’s really something to watch him work,” she continued. “I’ll show him a photo and he’ll say ‘Oh that’s so-and-so, and that’s such-and-such building, and it looks like it’s about 1930-something…’ and then we’ll start doing the research and he’s absolutely correct.”

Anyone within the vicinity of Ms Zimmermann when she is working on her project, or even when she begins talking about it, can’t help but be caught up in her excitement and enthusiasm. She points at a collection of images on an oversize proof sheet with the zeal of a youngster with a new toy, and rattles off historic names and their connections to the new-found images the way a student proudly shares facts from his or her studies.

For “Passport To Newtown’s Past,” Ms Zimmermann purposely selected as many photos as possible with people in them.

By this fall, 4-by-6-inch reference copies of photographs will be printed and put into binders to be kept at C.H. Booth Library. These binders will allow public access to the images for use as reference by students, researchers, and anyone interested in looking at local history for themselves.

The images will all be watermarked as property of Newtown Historical Images Archive. Prints will be available for purchase.

The framed prints hung in “Passport To Newtown’s Past” will be available for purchase. Unframed copies of the images will also be available.

“We’re hoping that the archive will eventually be self-sustaining, and for this we need an influx of money,” Ms Zimmermann explained. “We need money to house the archives, to continue purchasing the supplies for the archival work.”

In talking about the upcoming exhibition, Ms Zimmermann admitted that in the back of her head she had always thought there would be some kind of public display once the images were archived.

“No one even knows about this archive, so this is kind of its public debut,” she said last week. “Pictures are so cool anyway, and this has been a great project. This is great for Newtown.

“This is the culmination of a few years of work, so now is the fun time. I wish I could include even more in this exhibition, but even what we have already arranged is much more than what we originally planned to include in the show.”

“My hope is those viewing these photos will have a relationship with Newtown’s past through images that depict people involved in daily activities — work, recreation — in different seasons,” she said. “These photos are not at all static.

“I would really love for people to come and enjoy this collection, to see what our roots are.”

The opening reception for “Passport To Newtown’s Past” will run from 10 am until 2 pm on Saturday, July 30. The exhibition will be in the library’s lower meeting room, The Olga Knoepke Memorial Meeting Room. It will remain on view during regular library hours until August 31.