The Hampshire Room for Special Collections contains thousands of images documenting local history, including images of farms, factories, shops, schools, and local residents both well known and anonymous. The Northampton image collection comprises prints, glass and film negatives, lantern slides, etchings and stereographs. Other collections include the Elbridge Kingsley, Robert Emrick and Walter Corbin Collections, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette negatives from 1954-2004.
These Images From the Archives allow you to search a portion of the library's special collections which have been digitized. If you have any questions about this collection, please contact us.
Featured Item
Classical landscape (Orpheus and Eurydice)
Misses Julia and Rose Watson, sisters of Arthur Watson, a founding Forbes Library trustee and long-time president of its board, presented the painting to the Library in 1926. The Watson family thought it the work of eminent 17th century French painter Nicolas Poussin, who favored the Orpheus and Eurydice theme, or perhaps of a close Poussin relative. But a letter from the Director of the Louvre to Forbes Librarian Joseph L. Harrison in July, 1926, clearly refuted such a notion, ("c'est certainement pas de Poussin"), as well as any possible attribution to Gaspard Dughet, Poussin's nephew.
Later art historians believed the painting to be the work of George Loring Brown, a prominent 19th century landscape painter. A more recent appraisal found that it is not Brown either, but definitely of the Franco/Italian School, 18th century.
Reminiscent of Claude Lorraine's 17th century idyllic painting (e.g. "A Pastoral," c. 1650, Yale University Art Gallery), the work combined a theme from antiquity in an almost-recognizable mileu. Recent admirers refer to the large painting as "Orpheus and Eurydice at the Oxbow," placing the classically-garbed figures in a Connecticut River setting. The painting initially was renovated in 1941.
Featured Collection
Midnight to Midnight: Northampton's self-portrait in 48 hours
Featured Exhibit
Northampton Pride & Liberation: LGBT Voices from the Valley
This exhibit is the result of a ongoing collaboration between Forbes Library, Lilly Library, Kelly Anderson, Noho Pride, Smith College and Simmons College. It is a work in progress combining oral history interviews, promotional and organizational materials, and photographs to begin to tell the story of the history of the Northampton Gay and Lesbian Liberation March and its evolution into the Northampton Pride Parade.
Use the headings to the right to browse this exhibit.
As you navigate the exhibit, you'll notice the use of subject terms and tags to highlight topics and themes in these materials. For continuity, we've used the Library of Congress' Thesaurus for Graphic Materials. Cataloging standards for oral histories are evolving, and this collection in particular -- which traces multiple identities and politics over time -- demonstrates the frustrating and fruitful power of naming. For instance, the march's name itself has a complex genealogy which many narrators touch on in their interviews.
Content warnings are included with interviews that contain subject matter such as drug use or violence that could be sensitive for listeners, readers, or viewers. When possible, we've tried to use the narrators' own language to identify these topics and experiences.
We've tried to be accurate and clear and also to let the contributors speak for themselves while recognizing the fraught nature of this task. We welcome your feedback.
The oral history interviews included here are shared by their creators under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License. These digitized collections are accessible for purposes of education and research. We’ve indicated what we know about copyright and rights of privacy, publicity, or trademark. Due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to clarify information privacy, publicity, and copyright. We are eager to hear from any rights owners, so that we may obtain accurate information and respect the wishes of narrators and interviewers.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services with additional funding provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Contact us at archives@forbeslibrary.org