Local History On Tap: New This Week
Welcome!
We are thrilled to announce a capital grant from the Anne S. Richardson Fund of $60,000 over two years in addition to recent funding received from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program ($50,150 over two years), CARES Act Humanities Relief grant through the CT Humanities ($2,500), and Fairfield County Bank ($2,500). Thank you!
Our two sites, the David Scott House and the Peter Parley Schoolhouse, will remain closed for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, this page will continue to be updated with new content every week.
“Ridgefield Historical Society has a great story to tell about our state’s role in the American Revolution – one that anchors the founding values and ideals of our Nation in local action and honors the sacrifice citizens made to uphold their inalienable rights. It’s a story from 1777 that still resonates today. We are proud of Ridgefield Historical Society’s commitment to making our history relevant and we will continue to advocate for organizations and projects that engage public interest, foster dialog among our citizens, and enrich our understanding of the human experience.”
– Dr. Jason Mancini, Executive Director, CT Humanities
- Connect with us!
- Ridgefield Streams, a new website dedicated to Ridgefield’s incredible arts & cultural organizations
- Our online collections
- And don’t forget to join our mailing list!
- Contact
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If you have questions, email us at info@ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org or call 203-438-5821.
- Contribute
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We hope you have been enjoying the new and varied content we have been presenting each week! Due to the pandemic, we have extended all memberships through August 31, 2020.
Please consider supporting us:
- Join as a member
- Renew your membership
- Make a donation
- Stay in Touch Via Postcards and Help the Historical Society
Thank you! - COVID-19 Archival Project
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Local residents, parents, and kids can all help us to preserve the history of the current pandemic by sending us photographs, artwork, personal reflections, stories, letters and more. These items, if appropriate, will be stored in our archives and made available to future researchers and visitors to our collection.
Click here to contribute to our COVID-19 Archival project.
You can read more about the project and watch introductory and example videos on the Documenting Ridgefield’s Response to COVID-19 page.
Examples of Images Submitted to the COVID-19 Archival Project:
Gabriella’s Covid Portrait 
Thanks for visiting our website and staying connected with us and local history.
Kobi Shaw, daughter of Dr. Darla Shaw, was raised in Ridgefield and now lives in Colfax, Wisconsin. She created this fun and short video of 70 days of costumed, quarantine cabin fever antics in response to the pandemic.
Scott House Journal, July 2020
Topics: What the Society has been working on; Recent grant awards; Heading to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Profile of Doc Adams
OPENING THIS WEEK! Our exhibit will be on view in the Carriage Barn at the Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, Sundays and Wednesdays in August.
The Long and Winding Road, a four-part Zoom webinar with Dr. Shaw, will be offered on four Wednesdays in September.
We are partnering with historian Jack Sanders to share bits of over 3,000 entries from his Ridgefield Encyclopedia.
Pastor Bill Pfohl of Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church speaks about how the church is responding to the needs of others while continuing to hold worship services.
In this episode, Dr. Darla Shaw portrays Abigail Ingersoll Olmstead, famous for allegedly waving her red petticoat during the Battle of Ridgefield and appearing to be a loyalist sympathizer. thus saving her home (and children) from harm, but earning the wrath of her husband, a staunch patriot.
In the final installment, read more letters from 15-year-old Thompson Derr to his mother from the Ridgefield School in 1916.
We are partnering with historian Jack Sanders to share bits of over 3,000 entries from his Ridgefield Encyclopedia.
Enjoy even more virtual programming from recent weeks! Click a link below.
- Documenting COVID-19
- Inside the Exhibit: Votes for Women
- Change Agents: Ridgefield Women to Be Remembered
- Tours of the Peter Parley Schoolhouse
- Racism in the 20th Century in Ridgefield
- Uncle Ned’s Mountain: An Underground Railroad Station & Home of Civil War Soldiers
- Historical Nuggets
- Battle of Ridgefield Archaeology Updates
- Scott House Journal, April 2020
- ConnTours
- Oral History Project
- Treasures from the Archives
- Lectures by Terry McManus: Ballard Greenhouse; Anne S. Richardson; and Richardson Estate & Gardens