Putting New Items In Context At Fairfield Historical Society

FAIRFIELD — For visitors to Fairfield Historical Society museum who have interest in what’s new and what’s next at the historical society, a special exhibition has put some of the society’s most significant recent gifts and purchases together with complementary items from the rich collections of its museum and library.

The first “new acquisitions” exhibition at the Fairfield Historical Society since 1990, “What’s New! What’s Next? Recent Additions to the Collections” is up until August 14.

“Because we do thematic, interpretive exhibitions, it isn’t always possible to include new items,” notes Curator Adrienne Saint-Pierre, who organized the exhibition. “So it might be years before people get to see some of the great stuff that has been acquired for preservation and study.”

A new acquisition is often reunited with something else that belonged to its former owner. An unusual desk said to have been Aaron Burr’s — and purchased by Fairfield philanthropist Annie B. Jennings for that reason — was given to the historical society by Henry H. Anderson, a descendant of Ms Jennings’s sister. The desk will be displayed in the exhibition with other items owned by Ms Jennings, along with photographs of her magnificent, but long gone, Sunnie-Holme estate.

When a mahogany sideboard that belonged to Fairfield lawyer Roger Minott Sherman was donated to the historical society in memory of Sherman descendant Barbara Ann Skriletz, it rejoined other Sherman items in the collections. The sideboard — believed to have been a wedding gift from Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence — will be shown with Nathaniel Jocelyn’s 1840 portraits of Roger Minott Sherman and his wife Elizabeth Gould Sherman, and with a number of their books.

“What’s New! What’s Next?” also features major acquisitions by the Historical Society Library, including letters from a manuscript collection purchased last year relating to David Burr, captain of the bark Apollo. The Burr letters will be accompanied by several of Burr’s ship flags selected from a rare, complete set of hand-stitched Marryat Code flags from the museum collection.

Another addition to the archival holdings is a large collection of research material and photographs assembled by William J. O’Dwyer, who conducted extensive research on controversial aviation pioneer Gustave Whitehead. Exhibited with examples from this new manuscript collection will be a 1901 Brooks Brothers greatcoat that belonged to General T.L. Watson, who photographed Whitehead’s experimental airplanes.

The “What’s Next?” portion of the exhibition presents a sampling of the 20th Century material that has been added to the collections. Objects on view will include a 1960s paper dress, a doctor’s black bag used for house calls, and a large tin of civil defense survival biscuit from the Cold War era.

Fairfield Historical Society is at 636 Old Post Road, opposite Town Hall Green (Exit 22 off I-95); call 203-259-1598.