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  • Featured Exhibit

  • Online Exhibits May 2010

    In this exhibit, the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections has selected items from their extensive collection of family papers and institutional records to pay tribute to students past and present.
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  • 17th Century Exhibits

  • 18th Century Exhibits

  • 19th Century Exhibits

  • 20th Century Exhibits

  • Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Family Registers

  • The R. Stanton Avery Special Collections has been collecting and preserving family records since 1845. Among our collection are bible records, family journals, samplers and decorative family registers. In this ongoing exhibit we will present some of these items.

     This current display includes some decorative family registers. The family register as a decorative art form began in the late 18th century and continued in popularity through the mid 19th century. It was very popular among school children and was often part of their curriculum. Others were created by town clerks and teachers. Some families commissioned artists and engravers to create their family register. If you wish to learn more about family registers as an art form we recommend the book The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifacts of New England  published by NEHGS in 2002. It is available in our library and can be purchased at
    http://www.pictonpress.com/store/show/1825.

    Abraham and Lucy Hews Family Register, 1741-1870 sm

    Abraham and Lucy Hews Family Register, 1741-1870
    Not cataloged.

    The family records of Abraham and Lucy (Jennison) Hews of Weston, Mass.

    Lucy (Jennison) Hewes was the daughter of Samuel Jennison and Abigail Holden of Watertown, Mass.

    John Pilsbury Family Record, 1782-1829 of Lowell, Massachusetts, Mss A 3021

    Click here for enlarged image

    John Pilsbury Family Record, 1782-1829 of Lowell, Massachusetts, Mss A 3021
    Verso has newspaper clippings for the marriage of John McCormick and Caroline Pillsbury, the marriage of George Wheeler and Abby A. Pillsbury, and the tragic death of Abby A. (Pillsbury) Wheeler.
    Daniel Dodge Family Register, 1739 - 1835 sm Daniel Dodge Family Register, 1739 - 1835
    Register done in watercolor by Daniel Moody Lankester, 1809, while a student at the Newbury East School in Newbury, Mass.
    Part of the Atkinson-Lancaster Papers, Mss 31
    Bequeathed to the Society in 1933

    Hartwell and Holbrook Family Records, 1755-1872, Mss 699

    Hartwell and Holbrook Family Records, 1755-1872, Mss 699
    Record of births, marriages and deaths recorded by Abigail (Holbrook) Hartwell
    Part of the Larry McCagg Papers, Mss 699
    Donated to the Society in 2003
    Issac Ketchum Family Register, 1762-1880, Mss C 6

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    Issac Ketchum Family Register, 1762-1880, Mss C 6
    Note in pencil on the back of the record states "This hung in Isaac Sherwood Ketchum's old home so grandma K said. Then Mrs Isaac S K Sr kept it after husband’s death in 1820. I first saw it in Adeline Grams' home on Academy St. Manlins NY. At Miss A Grams death 1890 this record "went" to Aunt Hariett H Morgan. At her death her daughter Clara sent it with this HHM scrap book to me -- F.K. Armstrong 6/12/1928."
    Jole Brewer Family Register, 1752-1847 of Southborough, Massachusetts, Mss 592 Jole Brewer Family Register, 1752-1847 of Southborough, Massachusetts, Mss 592
    Black and white family record lithograph engraved by E.C. Tracy and printed in Cooperstown (N.Y.). This family record has written entries concerning the Joel Brewer family of Southborough, Mass. Donated to the Society in 1999.
    Jonathan Sikes Family Register, 1765-1852 of Ludlow and Monson, Massachusetts, Mss 811
    Family register lithograph by N. Currier that was "lettered by E.L. Pratt Three Rivers Mass." for the family of Jonathan Sikes of Ludlow Mass. Purchased in 2004.
    Samuel and Lois (Graves) Wilcox Family Register, 1770-1866 

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    Samuel and Lois (Graves) Wilcox Family Register, 1770-1866
    Not cataloged
    Samuel Wilcox and Lois (Graves) Wilcox lived all their lives in Middletown, Conn.

    Jeremiah Ward Family Register, 1774-1847 of Buckland, Massachusetts, Mss 494Jeremiah Ward Family Register, 1774-1847 of Buckland, Massachusetts, Mss 494

    Jeremiah Ward Family Register, 1774-1847 of Buckland, Massachusetts, Mss 494
    Lithograph by "H. Fe" [note: the rest of the surname is missing but was probably Hiram Ferry] completed in ms. for the Jeremiah and Hannah Ward family
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