Welcome!
We are here for you! Please contact us at info@ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org or 203-438-5821. We are open by appointment only, Tuesday through Thursday, 1-5 pm.
Scott House COVID-19 policy: If vaccinated, no mask is required. If unvaccinated, you must wear a mask to enter and throughout your visit.
We are hiring! Click here to find out more.
Questions and inquiries about the Battlefield Research Project should be directed to bor.grant@ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org.
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We hope you have been enjoying the new and varied content we have been presenting each week!
Please consider supporting us:
- Join as a member
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- Volunteer!
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.
We are now a proud partner of Compassionate Ridgefield!
Local History On Tap: New This Week
Events
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June 1 - July 30, 2021 – 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
This exhibit looks back at 100 years of class photos starting with the 1919 graduating class of the formerly named Alexander Hamilton High School. Yearbooks, a 1944 banner, senior class trip photos, and graduation invitations from our archives are included in the Town Hall display. |
Now Online
The Heritage Consultants Research Team made contact with several area historical societies, which provided information that will be useful in the Source Database.
In this multi-episode presentation, Candiss Cowan discusses the value of fabric in Colonial America. In the North, clothing was made out of “homespun” wool and the quality of the fabric was based on the breed of sheep.
Learn how during the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key and two other Americans were detained on British war ships in Baltimore Harbor while they ferociously bombarded Ft. McHenry. What circumstances conspired to have the captives use the rocket’s red glare and the bombs bursting in air to give them proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Each week, historian Jack Sanders shares bits of over 3,000 entries from his Ridgefield Encyclopedia.
Nugget #63: Landis, Jessie Royce (1904-72)
In this video short, learn about women’s fashion and how the expressions “dressed to the nines” and “the whole nine nards” came about.
During May, the Heritage Consultants team continued working through documents and organizing resources for the Battle of Ridgefield narrative and also made contact with people who have significant relics from the Revolutionary War era. They also spoke with another historian who wrote about the Battle.
Heritage Consultants’ research team — David George, Kevin McBride and David Naumec — continued gathering and assessing historical resources for the Battle of Ridgefield study during April, with the continuing goal of creating the most detailed historical narrative possible. Mapping of the entire battlefield also continues.
Kate Mozier-Tichy, a recent master’s degree recipient in Information and Library Sciences at Southern CT State University, tells us about Native American participation in the Revolutionary War, particularly in Connecticut.
Military Historian, David Naumec, Ph.D, of Heritage Consultants and his team will be blogging monthly on their research around the Battle of Ridgefield, supported by the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program grant awarded to the Historical Society last year.
Kate Mozier-Tichy, a recent master’s degree recipient in Information and Library Sciences at Southern CT State University, tells us about King Philip’s War (1675-76).
President Tracy Seem introduces the fourth and last episode in this series, read by intern Alexa Rome. A series of articles from the Ridgefield Press in 1876 detail a saga about a local kidnapping.
The Ridgefield High School theatre department presents this series of light, ironic, and humorous stories written by students that are based on their 2020 experiences and observations during the pandemic. This program is part of our Ridgefield Responds to COVID-19 series.
Taking inspiration from the film News of the World featured in our upcoming fundraising event on May 30, board member Sally Sanders reads “Lost on the Plains: A Child Eighteen Hours Among Snapping and Growling Wolves” from the January 1876 edition of The Ridgefield Press.
Taking inspiration from the film News of the World featured in our upcoming fundraising event on May 30, our wonderful volunteer Garrett Breslin will read an excerpt from an article about his ancestors in the June 4, 1959 edition of The Ridgefield Press.
RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE!
This webinar with Ed Hynes includes an extensive Q&A with participants, and a downloadable PDF of his slide show.
This presentation begins on April 25, 1777, when the British land at Compo Beach, march through Redding to Danbury, and return to the shore through Ridgefield and Wilton. Learn about the main encounters that took place in Danbury and Ridgefield and the roles key historical figures played in the Raid and Battle.
Scott House Journal, April 2021
Topics: post-Civil War Ridgefield, Mary Christie (Mamie) Seymour, William O. Seymour
Scott House Journal, January 2021
Topics: President’s Message; Joe Tulipani’s Memoir of Farm Life; Upcoming Webinars
Taking inspiration from the film News of the World featured in our upcoming fundraising event on May 30, our own Monica McMorran will read news briefs from the August 1875 edition of The Ridgefield Press, then called Baxter’s Monthly after its founder D. Crosby Baxter.
Candiss teaches a series of simple colonial garb projects to celebrate Patriot’s Day on Monday, April 19. Watch “Quick & Easy Costumes for Boys & Girls”!
In 2017, the Connecticut Legislature proclaimed the third Monday in April “Patriot’s Day.” To inspire you to participate, Candiss Cowan shows you how women dressed in the 18th Century.
Dr. Darla Shaw portrays Florence Powdermaker and tells the story of her sister Hortense, both Doctorates, who in the 1920s contributed greatly to the fields of psychiatry and anthropology, respectively. They lived on a 103-acre farm in Ridgebury for 30 years. Powdermaker Drive is named after them.
This webinar recording explores the extraordinary cultural phenomenon of home DNA testing, implications for how we think about family and ourselves, and its ramifications for American culture broadly. It draws on Libby Copeland’s years of research for her new book The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are (Abrams, 2020), which The Wall Street Journal calls “a fascinating account of lives dramatically affected by genetic sleuthing.”
Recording available now of Jack Sanders’ webinar, The Heroes of Ned’s Mountain. The program starts with an hour-long video presentation and continues with Mr. Sanders answering questions from participants.
Seamstress Audrey Fanning Hawker’s mask project has brightened many Ridgefield faces while making the community safer. It has helped not only those who wear her masks but Ms. Hawker as well.
Topics: President’s Message; Joe Tulipani’s Memoir of Farm Life; Upcoming Webinars
Join us for a Live Zoom Webinar with Nick Bellantoni, Emeritus Connecticut State Archaeologist, when he will discuss the history, discovery, and excavation of the burials found last December and give an update on the forensic analysis currently underway.
This presentation is taken from the memoirs of Joe Tulipani, who lived with his family on the Keeler Farm on Nod Road in the 1930s.
Find out how the Schoolhouse operated during the fall and winter seasons. Who attended classes, and how was the school heated? Jack Sanders will read the first pages of two 19th Century history books West Lane students might have used, one by Charles A. Goodrich and one by his brother, Samuel G. Goodrich (as Peter Parley), who both attended the one-room school.
Whether you notice it or not, Ridgefield’s history is illuminated by the very buildings that comprise the town. This tour seeks to explore prominent architectural styles in their historical context, as well as to highlight the colorful individuals who built and inhabited these living relics.
Enjoy even more virtual programming from recent weeks! Click a link below.
- How Women Dressed in the 18th Century
- LEGO® Sculpture Contest 2020
- Ridgefield and Fairfield County’s Native Populations
- Connecticut Relic Hunters
- Documenting COVID-19
- Inside the Exhibit series:
- 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 Virtual & Walking Tours
- Oral History Project
- Treasures from the Archives
- Lectures by Terry McManus:
- Ballard Greenhouse
- Anne S. Richardson and her estate and gardens