Dance has been just one of a variety of important ways in which Windsor has experienced music since the town’s earliest days. Sometimes controversial, but always expressive, dance, like all the other forms of musical expression, has enriched Windsor’s past.
Were the Puritans allowed to listen to music? When and why were drums and bugles so important? Where did your Windsor grandparents go to dance? Who are the famous Windsor musicians of yesteryear, and who [...]
Since the Society’s two historic houses have been closed for the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the staff has taken this opportunity to reinterpret the Dr. Hezekiah Chaffee House to more deeply [...]
Join Society Curator Kristen Wands for a virtual exploration of our newest exhibit highlighting life in Windsor the year 1921, when Windsor Historical Society was founded! Learn about the town, its people, businesses, organizations and [...]
Do you ever wonder how objects end up in museum exhibitions? The cloak on view in our museum gallery arrived at the Society in a box. It had ripped seams, frayed trim, insect damage, and layers of dirt. But in its prime in the early 1800s, the bright red color was a fashion statement and a sign of the owner’s wealth.
Deacon John Moore was at the center of a nexus of important woodworking families that extended through four generations to include the Drakes, Bissells, Loomises, Barbers, Griswolds, Stoughtons and others. Together, these families largely controlled the woodworking trade in the region until the middle of the eighteenth century.
Handwritten entries in the Gillett-Holcomb Bible. This article originally appeared in the WHS Newsletter in September, 1990. The first part was written by then director Robert T. Silliman, and the second part by Raymond A. Beardslee, a former owner of the Bible.
One of the more unique things visitors might notice as they step into our colonial Windsor history gallery is a very handsome tavern sign that bears the likeness of a dashing military man. What they cannot see is that there is a second and equally dashing portrait is on the reverse side.
The Brown family of Wintonbury parish in Windsor, now the town of Bloomfield, made bass, snare, and toy drums from around 1809 into the 1850s. Brown drums are well-known to collectors, scholars, and drum corps members.