We have a new site for our special collections! For the most complete and up-to-date catalog of our materials, please visit https://archives.forbeslibrary.org/.
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
Angel of Hadley, (a.k.a. "The Perils of Our Forefathers")
Colonists, Native Americans, regicide: all makeup the legend of the
fictitious "Angel of Hadley," which has fascinated and beguiled
historians and townspeople for over three hundred years. It
attracted, as well, the interest of Connecticut-born artist
Frederic Chapman (1818-1891), known for his stained glass designs
and for his paintings of landscapes, portraits, and historical
motifs, especially of the Boston area. In his later years, his oil
paintings of Civil War scenes earned considerable recognition.
The Angel of Hadley was a fabled event of King Phillip's War, in 1675, that Chapman focused upon in this painting which depicts an Indian attack upon the town of Hadley. The legend says the residents were in church when the assault came, and they huddled there in panic, expecting the worst. Suddenly, a stranger appeared to help, described as an elderly man dressed in English garb of several decades earlier. He supposedly organized a successful defense of the town, and disappeared after the skirmish, never to be seen again.
While the grateful townsfolk were sure the man was sent as an angel of God to save them, supposedly the real story came out as the founding pastor of Hadley, John Russell, lay on his deathbed years later. It was only then that he admitted to harboring Englishman William Goffe, formerly a general in Oliver Cromwell's army, and a conspirator in the regicide of King Charles I. With the restoration of the crown to King Charles II, there was a price upon Goffe's head, and he fled to the American colonies. Allegedly, he was hidden in a secret room in Pastor Russell's house, emerging in public only in 1675 to defend the colonists.
Noted 19th century historian George Sheldon of Deerfield, a contemporary of Chapman's, claimed the event never could have happened. But that hasn't deterred generations of Hadley residents from its retelling. To commemorate the tale, as well as the 200th anniversary of the town of Hadley in 1859, many local people bought copies of "The Perils of Our Forefathers," John C. McCrae's steel engraving of Chapman's painting (originally offered in 1859 at $3.00 for black and white and $8.00 for color). The Library has a copy of the engraving. How and when the original painting came to Forbes is undetermined.
Dr. George A. Snook's detailed article about the legend is available in the Hampshire Room. There is also a brochure identifying General Goffe and all the townspeople huddled in Hadley Church - including several people (such as Col. Benjamin Church and Major John Pynchon) who in reality, as Dr. Snook points out, were not there.
The Angel of Hadley was a fabled event of King Phillip's War, in 1675, that Chapman focused upon in this painting which depicts an Indian attack upon the town of Hadley. The legend says the residents were in church when the assault came, and they huddled there in panic, expecting the worst. Suddenly, a stranger appeared to help, described as an elderly man dressed in English garb of several decades earlier. He supposedly organized a successful defense of the town, and disappeared after the skirmish, never to be seen again.
While the grateful townsfolk were sure the man was sent as an angel of God to save them, supposedly the real story came out as the founding pastor of Hadley, John Russell, lay on his deathbed years later. It was only then that he admitted to harboring Englishman William Goffe, formerly a general in Oliver Cromwell's army, and a conspirator in the regicide of King Charles I. With the restoration of the crown to King Charles II, there was a price upon Goffe's head, and he fled to the American colonies. Allegedly, he was hidden in a secret room in Pastor Russell's house, emerging in public only in 1675 to defend the colonists.
Noted 19th century historian George Sheldon of Deerfield, a contemporary of Chapman's, claimed the event never could have happened. But that hasn't deterred generations of Hadley residents from its retelling. To commemorate the tale, as well as the 200th anniversary of the town of Hadley in 1859, many local people bought copies of "The Perils of Our Forefathers," John C. McCrae's steel engraving of Chapman's painting (originally offered in 1859 at $3.00 for black and white and $8.00 for color). The Library has a copy of the engraving. How and when the original painting came to Forbes is undetermined.
Dr. George A. Snook's detailed article about the legend is available in the Hampshire Room. There is also a brochure identifying General Goffe and all the townspeople huddled in Hadley Church - including several people (such as Col. Benjamin Church and Major John Pynchon) who in reality, as Dr. Snook points out, were not there.
Featured Collection
Fine Arts
The Forbes Library holds a substantial collection of paintings,
engravings, photographs, and other works by local, regional and
nationally-known artists of the 18th to the 21st centuries.
Featured Exhibit
125th Anniversary exhibits
Selections from the Forbes Library Archives
In celebration of Forbes Library’s 125th anniversary year (2019), a variety of images and objects from the Library’s local history collections were featured in the Hosmer Gallery alongside the work of contemporary local artists.
These displays will be preserved as online exhibits.
January: Forbes and Calvin Coolidge
February: People at Work
March: Women of Forbes Library
April: The Gregory Wilson Postcard Collection
June: H.E Robbins handcolored wildflower prints
July: Everyday life in 1894 Northampton
August: Posters
September: Children and Education