Simsbury

When early photographers began recording scenes around Simsbury, the town was over 200 years old and changing with the times.

Photographs taken in 1885 during a mile-high balloon ride trace railroads, rather than the old canal, running through the town. Grand Victorian mansions, some of them summer residences, arose among cherished family homes on farms dating from colonial times. The mills in the Tariffville section and Toy, Bickford & Company near the center of town provided housing for workers who arrived from Europe. Townspeople sent their youngest children to one of 12 district schools. By 1917, the town could boast of a centrally located public high school as well as two private boarding schools. In Simsbury, images capture the mix of old and new until the advent of World War II.

Mary Jane Springman holds a master of arts degree in American studies and has awards from the American Association for State and Local History, Connecticut League of History Organizations, and Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution. Alan Lahue holds a master of arts degree in teaching and is a director of the Simsbury Historical Society. Simsbury commemorates the founding of the Simsbury Historical Society in 1911.