A big part of the mission of the Historical Society is to make the collection accessible to the public.  This is done through exhibitions at the museum’s two sites, the website, educational and public programs, and publications.

The Historical Society is often contacted by academic researchers and historians who are writing books and wish to use some item in our collection as an illustration in their work.   Some of our more popular requests are for the Ralph Earl portraits of Benjamin Tallmadge and Mary Floyd Tallmadge as well as needleworks and embroideries produced by students attending the Litchfield Female Academy.

The writers and publishers they are working with need high quality images to use in the publications.  To serve their needs and also to have quality images of items in our collection for other uses, we work with professional photographer David Stansbury of Stansbury Photography in Springfield, MA.

David generally visits the museum at least once a year for a full day of work.  This is a fairly time consuming process as space has to be set aside in the museum for him to work, objects have to be pulled off display or out of storage and ready for their moment in front of the camera and then everything has to be returned so the visiting public is unaware any changes every took place.

David Stansbury at right in the winter of 2008 as the Historical Society prepared for the publication of the exhibition catalog To Please Any Taste: Litchfield County Furniture & Furniture Makers, 1780-1830

David travels with a van load of equipment and is challenged with creating a mock photography studio in one of the museum’s rooms.  Flood lights, back drops, and tripods are arranged and adjusted as each artifact is placed in front of the camera.

David as he adjusts an image on his computer

His work is impeccable and the images he has created for the museum have been used countless times in all manner of publications.

The photographer sessions are often held in the Liggett Gallery of the Litchfield History Museum.  The large gallery provides ample space for the equipment

David will be visiting the museum again soon after we close for the season at the end of November.  He will be photographing many of the materials related to the Litchfield Female Academy and Litchfield Law School that have not already been captured.  These images will be used in future exhibitions, educational programs and in the upcoming Litchfield Law School and Litchfield Female Academy database which will be released in 2011.