The Small Photographs Collection at the Custom House Museum

Since its founding in 1983, the New London Maritime Society has built an eclectic collection of photographs related to local maritime history, some added by gift and some by purchase, called the Small Photographs Collection for lack of a better name. Some of the photographs were originally gathered, identified and organized by the late historian Harold J. Cone and include his extensive notes and labels.

Over the years the photographs have provided a valuable visual resource for many historians and journalists writing about the period when New London, a hub of maritime commerce since colonial times, including an important whaling fleet, was transformed industrially by steam, diesel and nuclear power. They record the vanished history of the city, including views of the harbor, waterfront activity, ships at anchor, regattas and scenes from the industrial past. 

Today, as New London experiences further industrial transformation to support wind energy technology with the State Pier Project, and the construction of the Coast Guard Museum on the waterfront, these historic photographs are even more important to planners, researchers and local history fans.

Several months ago we applied for a  grant to preserve some of our photographs.  We did not get the grant but it inspired us to look again at the photographs collection as a whole. The result was a physical exhibition of actual photographs in the Custom House as well as this digital exhibition of some of the images.  The online show will continue as we add more images from the collection in the future. 

For this exhibition we have scanned some of the photographs.  Many of the images appear as thumbnails. To enlarge to full-size, click on an image and zoom in to examine the details.

Laurie M. Deredita, Librarian