ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS
The Windsor Historical Society collections include objects from Native American settlement and the English founding of Windsor in 1633 through the present.
Ceramics storage room | Pill box
The library and archives house extensive historical resources relating to the town of Windsor and its people. Highlights include:
- thousands of historic and modern photographs
- oral histories
- 17th-20th-century primary source documents (many indexed by date and family name)
- more than 350 published genealogies of Windsor families
- family and subject files – topics include houses by address, clubs and organizations, businesses, tobacco, witches, and more
- vital records, local cemetery records, land records (copies)
- 1890 recreated census for Windsor, CT
- town annual reports and tax records
- account books collection (1733-1954)
- local newspapers – including Windsor Town Crier (1916-1917), Hartford Times (1920s-30s), Windsor Herald (1930s), Windsor News Weekly (1944-1962), Windsor Journal (1975-present)
- Windsor High School yearbooks (1915-present)
- city directories and telephone books (1905-present)
- historic maps
- regional and state histories
- Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor genealogical database
The museum collection consists of approximately 11,000 objects including:
- decorative arts and household items from the 1600s to the present, with particularly strong holdings from the Victorian period.
- clothing, textiles, and accessories, with a focus on costume from the 1840s to the 1930s.
- fine art
- archaeological artifacts
- Tools and equipment related to Windsor industries, especially farming
- Materials related to Windsor businesses with large groups of items related to former businesses including Combustion Engineering and the Summerwind Performing Arts Center
- A large Education Collection consisting of reproduction items for hands-on activities, including all of the furnishings in our 1810 Strong-Howard House and the Hezekiah Chaffee doctor’s office