Happy New Year, 2013!

This year marks a lot of changes for me. As Town Historian I will be celebrating my 10th anniversary on the same day I turn 39! In May I will (hopefully) graduate with my Master's. Plus, I hope to take my not-quite-teenage daughter on a trip to England.

Due to my class schedule during this spring semester, I will have to alter my hours here at the Town Offices. My new hours, through May 2013 will be Friday 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

I will continue with my weekly blog here, & hope to keep my Facebook page updated. I will continue researching the history of our town in the Gill Room & at the NYS Library. (I did get that internship at the NYS Archives!)

Please let me know in the comment section of this blog, or on Facebook, if there is something you would like to know more about. Or if you have a bit of history to share.


May 2013 bring you many blessings!

New Year's Resolution... Organize the Office

Seeing as how April 2012 will be my 9th anniversary as the Historian for the Town of Greenwich, I have decided this is THE year for me to finally tackle the tremendous job of organizing, cataloging, filing, scanning, decluttering the office here.

In the spirit of that process which, I'm sure, will uncover some very interesting things I didn't know where here, I will share with you some random bits of ephemera. Enjoy (& I;ll see what I can dig up for you next week.)

front & back cover of the White Swan Cafe menu c. 1980s



Look at those prices!

 For those of you who create brochures, pamphlets, posters... Could you try to remember to put a date on them? Especially the year. It would be a great help to all of the historians and archivists who have to sort through all of the paper 30, 50, 100 years down the line.

Undated House Tour brochure

Eight places in the Greater Greenwich area listed

Here's one. A scrapbook that you picked up at a gas station in a town you were visiting. This one was never used, but the gas station stamp is inside.

The year is printed right on this scrapbook- 1953

The stamp for John Whiteside & Sons is in the upper right

I'll keep you informed of my progress in keeping my historian's New Year's resolution. Did you make any resolutions for 2012?

Happy New Year!

In trying to come up with a New Year themed post, I was at a loss until I thought of Miss Mary Moriarty's post cards. You may recall I used one in my May 5, 2011 post about girl baby names. Well, in this collection are two New Year's post cards that I thought I would share with you.

This card was postmarked December 31, 1906 in NYC. There is no indication of who it is from. Was Mary in NYC for the New Year & mailed it back to herself? It's hard to tell in this image, but the background is a pretty luminous silver.

Front New Year post card- 12/31/1906

Back of card showing postmark & 1 cent Franklin stamp

This one is postmarked Saratoga Springs, January 1, 1907 12 M. I'm assuming that means 12:00 a.m. Midnight! Very cool.

The handwriting says "From J.P.D 12/31/06"

See where the postmark says 12 M... Another Franklin 1 cent

There a quite a few more cards in the collection. I'll share some with you throughout the upcoming year.

Happy 2012!