New Online Historic Photos Collection!

The Duxbury Rural & Historical Society recently acquired this photograph of sculptor John Horrigan with Myles Standish’s head, 1930.

The Duxbury Rural and Historical Society has established an online archive of historical Duxbury photographs through Flickr, a photo-sharing website. The site currently features over 250 photographs of Duxbury ranging from the late 19th to mid-20th century. Many, many more photographs will be added to the site in the coming weeks.

There are some fascinating images of familiar (and some not-so-familiar) Duxbury sites. We hope that residents will enjoy examining Duxbury of the past. The website enables viewers to comment on photographs and we encourage visitors to share if they have information regarding the sites depicted. In particular, there are a number of old photographs of unidentified Duxbury homes. We hope that some residents might be able to help us in identifying these locations.

A large part of what we do at the DRHS involves collecting and preserving historical objects, documents and photographs. Last year, we accessioned over 83 artifacts (including paintings, historic clothing and furnishings) as well as 13 archival collections (some collections consisting of a single document and some comprising several boxes of material).

In addition to collecting and preserving, it is a key goal for the Society to exhibit and share historical material as well. We started the online photographs project with that in mind back in 2011. After more than a year of cataloging and scanning, we are now working on posting hundreds of digital images.

The Society’s historic photographs and documents are stored in the Drew Archival Library (in the Wright Building at 147 St. George Street). The process of creating an online photographs collection was undertaken in 2011 by DRHS Archivist Carolyn Ravenscroft and numerous interns and volunteers at the Drew Archives.

So, take a look at the collection and check back as more will be continually added. And let us know what you think! Anyone interested in learning more about the Society’s archival collection, or even helping with the online project, are encouraged to contact the archives at 781-934-1382, cravenscroft@duxburyhistory.org, or stop by Monday-Friday, 9 am to 1 pm.