Category Archives: Artifacts and Archives

Blog posts include anything that involves items from the artifact and/or archives collection of the Historical Society.

Litchfield School Records

By Cecelia Hooper, Intern

The recent merging of Litchfield Public Schools and Region 6 into Region 20 has given the Litchfield Historical Society the opportunity to ensure the old district’s memory will be preserved for future generations. A generous donation by the new region of office records, sports paraphernalia, and other academic items of no longer existing schools reveal the workings of an older scholastic administration and give insight into the lives of students over the past century.

Trophies on display in Liggett Gallery, 2025-11-1-5

Donated student handbooks from Litchfield High School dating from the 1964-65 school year up to 1989-90 included school policies, club descriptions, possible awards, sport schedules, and the school song. Information was added and removed over the years, such as course descriptions and Title IX. Trophies show wins in baseball, basketball, and tennis, along with the names of the winning team. The trophies and sports jerseys are currently on display in the Liggett Gallery.

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Eric Hatch Portrait

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By Cecelia Hooper, Intern

The museum recently acquired a portrait of the acclaimed author Eric Stowe Hatch (1902-1973) through the generous donation of his son, Eric K. Hatch. This portrait will be on view Litchfield History Museum’s Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library (7 South Street, Litchfield). Depicting Hatch at seven years old, the painting was completed around 1909 and painted either at his parents’ house on Park Avenue in New York City, or at their secondary residence in Cedarhurst, Long Island.

Oil Painting–Eric Stowe Hatch (1902-1973) by John Wycliffe Lowes Forster, circa 1909; Litchfield Historical Society, 2025-13-1

The artist of the piece was John Wycliffe Lowes Forster (1850-1938), a well-known portrait painter from Canada. He began his apprenticeship at nineteen, and a decade later studied for three years in Paris. A member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy, his body of work includes multiple prominent subjects, including the Emperor and Empress of Japan in 1920. The museum holds four other of his paintings.

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Inside the Collections – Fire Insurance Markers

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My favorite way to pick a new “Inside the Collections” topic is to stumble upon it—in this case, to come across it while housing new acquisitions in our storage facility. We have well over 20,000 objects in our museum collection, stored in seven rooms in three different buildings. Even after nine years at the Historical Society, I regularly “find” objects for the first time, or find a reason to reconsider an object I haven’t seen for some time. Sitting on one of the many shelves in our open storage area, I paused for a few seconds on two pieces of thin, pressed metal with obvious connections to England (see below). While they are clearly decorative, even so far as having evidence of a painted surface, I couldn’t immediately place their function. Too small to be an effective business sign, but too large to be a nameplate. The database told me they are “insurance signs.”

The more specific answer is that they are insurance markers. To be even more precise, fire insurance markers or, simply, fire marks.

Fire insurance marker for “IMPERIAL,” English, nineteenth century; Litchfield Historical Society, 1915-02-6

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Law School Letters

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The Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library at the Litchfield Historical Society has recently purchased three new letters pertaining to the Litchfield Law School and its students. Two of the letters are likely relatable to many of today’s parents as they discuss the expense of educating children.

The first letter, written in 1815 by Putnam Catlin, father of Litchfield Law School student George Catlin (who later left the law to paint) was addressed to his friend Steuben Butler and detailed the financial difficulty in providing for his children’s education:

I am obliged to consider myself as a mere farmer, republican farmer, Beechwood farmer, without a hired man in this hurrying season of the year. How then am I to spare George and James? I admit that your reasoning is just in regard to George but I know not how to spare him at this time. I shall not be able to give him a public education. If he shall persist in the choice of law he will have to glean for himself an education in some law office, perhaps. I may indulge him a year at Litchfield, in the meantime, I will do better for him if it be in my power. Should my ‘ship arrive from England’ or should I make sale of some land I can spare he may be more favored.
Putnam Catlin to Steuben Butler, May 3, 1815

detailed image — Putnam Catlin by George Catlin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, between 1840-1849

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Miss Jones Letter

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1847 Litchfield CT stampless folded letter red CDS and 5 rate [H.3508] - Picture 1 of 3

Letter, Julia Henrietta Jones to Laura Boardman Lane, March 31, 1847

As noted before, we have alerts set up for eBay and various auction sites to notify staff when Litchfield-related items and collections appear. A few weeks ago, I added this item to my watchlist on eBay. Individual letters are often bought and sold by stamp collectors who care little about the contents as was the case with this. Although I had requested an image of the contents, the seller did not comply. Instead, I received an offer to buy the letter for $8.49. Noting that it had a return option, I decided to take a chance- the name Laura Lane was familiar from my work on the Boardman papers, and the 1841 made me wonder whether the author was a former Litchfield Female Academy Student.

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