Colrain Archives

 This week we photographed Document Box 26 and added the pics to the database Below are a few selections or click on Document Box 26 to see all. #3608-9-10, sandwich bags,  have colonial artifacts from 3 Colrain sites.  #3609 has a notecard "Found at the site of Fort Morris".  Unfortunately neither this notecard or the old "Louise" file card (below) say very much about the "who" and "where"  and context. It nay be that James Johnston was a metal detector enthusiast.  **** Archaelogist Aaron Miller, who managed the dig at nearby Fort Taylor in ca. 2006, was shown this image and wrote ...  "These look exactly like the kinds of materials I would expect to see at the fortified farmsteads. I suspect that you're right and these materials were found by a metal detectorist. Otherwise, I would expect to see a bunch of tobacco pipes and ceramics as well. You probably have a mix of mid 18th-century material and some later 18th- and 19th-century but...

 Pitt Collections Inventory Project We are cataloging the Mt. Pitt's personal collections from the Colrain Historical Society collections, even though all belong to CHS and are stored in the Pitt House. We began to inventory the Pitt items, such as paintings in the bedrooms, in early 2024, followed by a more systematic organizing of other objects and papers, which is ongoing.  Prentice and Nina, with helpo from Ellen, are handling this effort. Each inventoried item is photographed / scanned as we add it to the database.  There are 590 items listed to date. This is in a separate "table" in the CHS Archives database. Gallery Link to Pitt objects Pitt Collections Database - 590 items Each item has a number, based on its found location, such as "at-01"  for attic. Front Hall Items

d. allen  Feb 25, 2025 Colrain Historical Society Database  Links   - Feb 2025 (these links are to "Gallery" views of the Airtable database) 1 :   a few short selection Views:   (these include records without images) |Database "Griswoldville"        (see #666 murder trial (1867) notebook by lawyer) Database "Colrain Inn" *** More Selection Views to be added later... *** 2:   a large selection view: Database - 1575 Records with Images We have more than 2500 items in the database, but only 1575 have pics, so this link only covers records with images.  This will be easier to play with for you the reader. ============================================= Instructions for using the large selection of 1575 records: After you open the database, note the upper left corner- "Filter  and  Sort" Let's try Filter: When you click on Filter, select "Description", and type in "contains"   and then "so...

 Rev Feb 15, 2025  --- added maps.  This "picture" of Colrain was printed in the 1839 book "Historical Collections ..." by John Warner Barber. This is scanned item #586 , CHS Archives. It  is believed to be taken from that 1839 book (or one of the later editions) Last week (Jan, 2024) Sarah Hollister discovered that Mass Historical Society has the original worksheet for the 1839 view. I have marked up that image:  (see bottom of page for clean copy)   MHS dates this manuscript at 1838, meaning that Mr. Barber stood here on Route 112 facing east to the village center.  This may be the oldest drawing of any scene in Colrain (?), decades before any photographs were made of the village. What are these buildings??   The words in quotation marks in the list are verbatim from the drawing. Italics are current opinions. 1) Site of 5 Main Road?   - a large 2-story building with 7 windows on 2nd floor... 2) "Cong. Church" "brick" "white" (top...