Our Growing Collection
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When the Museum opened in 1984, our board didn’t envision creating a collection. The founders were more interested in exhibits and most of the early ones used items borrowed from Unionville residents or others with Unionville history information. But the people “lending” to exhibits began to suggest that we keep the items for posterity. So we began collecting. During his time on the board, Jack Crockett alone cataloged over 3,000 items, including many he had donated himself.
More recently, we began actively looking for auction and sale items online and have found many new items for our collection there. In 2011, for example, Cliff Alderman was able to buy, at auction, a genuine pike, one of 1,000 ordered by John Brown in 1859 from Chauncey Hart’s Unionville forge to be used in his abortive Harper’s Ferry raid that October. But, as in the 1980s, most of our additions continue to be from Unionville residents or the families of former residents. We are deeply grateful for the ongoing support of our wonderful village and the Town of Farmington over the past 35+ years. A new project last year has provided us with an online catalog, which already has around 8,000 items entered in it, mostly pictures (around 5,000 of them so far). Also entered in the catalog is our collection of FHS yearbooks – several hundred including (personalized) duplicates – and about 3-400 (mostly early 1900s) postcards. We are now in the process of entering our clothing collection (including accessories and military uniforms). Another group we hope to add soon includes a large number of unique objects from Unionville’s history – such as the pike, an 1880s lithograph of Andersonville Prison where a number of Unionville soldiers were held (and some died), the spire from the Unionville Town Hall and windows from the Episcopal Church, torn down during redevelopment. This collection also includes more mundane items such as tools, furniture, house items and art. |
Research
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Another important collection is our group of around 20 clocks, mostly ones made in Unionville. Finally, we have a large collection of paper items ranging from information about town businesses (including records of some of the departed factories), a large collection of information about town schools over the years, newspapers, magazines and books and, of course, the large Flood of 1955 collection.
We depend on our members and other supporters to continue to support the collection by becoming members, coming to our exhibits and by donating to our Legacy Fund. This fund receives all donations sent to us in memory of deceased persons and is used to maintain the items in our collection and acquire new items that become available.
We depend on our members and other supporters to continue to support the collection by becoming members, coming to our exhibits and by donating to our Legacy Fund. This fund receives all donations sent to us in memory of deceased persons and is used to maintain the items in our collection and acquire new items that become available.
Photo Gallery
Click images from our collection to enlarge.
