First Town Downtown Windsor CT

Windsor CT Main Street Program
Phone: 860-247-8982

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December, 2021show full yearClose
Event:Gallery Day: Windsor Historical Soc
Date:December 18th, 2021.
Time:11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Windsor Historical Society invites you to enjoy a special free showing of it’s two exciting changing exhibits during its holiday Gallery Day on Saturday, December 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Experience A Home Away from Home: Greater Hartford’s West Indian Diaspora and Bound Together: The Complexities of Black-White Relations in Early Windsor at the stately Chaffee House museum, as well as 100 Years of Windsor Historical Society in the main museum building. Open for a rare self-guided experience, Society staff and docents will be on hand to answer questions and discuss these evocative history experiences.

The historic Chaffee House features two exhibits that tell distinct but related stories of arrival, identity, relationships, and survival. A Home Away from Home: Greater Hartford’s West Indian Diaspora, curated by UCONN historian Fiona Vernal, PhD. whose oral histories and research bring to life the experiences of the region’s West Indian community, Connecticut’s largest foreign-born immigrant population. Throughout the rest of this spacious historic home, explore Bound Together: Complexities of Black-White Relations in Early Windsor. This exhibit explores the 18th- and 19th-century lives of the enslaved residents and the white Chaffee family members whose lives were linked by mutual dependence and shaped by Connecticut’s system of chattel slavery.

At the Society’s main museum, in celebration of its 100th anniversary, the Society invites you to explore its past century through a new exhibit of fascinating images and surprises! The exhibit recounts the Society’s 100-year history, celebrating the many people and stories that led to it becoming one of Connecticut’s premier local history organizations. Learn about the first historical artifacts the Society acquired, why it has a piece of the original Plymouth Rock, and how one earned a place within the prestigious “Golden Record.” Among the many fascinating stories featured is the Society’s unusual connection to President Ulysses Grant, as well as documents signed by Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Guests may also learn about the Society’s most iconic item of the 1930s - how it was connected to opera singer James Melton and about its mysterious disappearance. These and other curious artifacts and stories are all part of Windsor Historical Society’s long and intriguing history, on exhibit now through summer 2022.

Admission is free for both of these special galleries. For more information contact the Society at 860-688-3813 or info@windsorhistoricalsociety.org.



Mission Statement
The mission of First Town Downtown is to position and promote Windsor Center as a premier New England town center that protects and utilizes its proud heritage as the basis for developing vibrant recreational, economic and cultural activity.

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  • Address:161 Broad St, Windsor, CT

  • Phone: 860-247-8982

  • Email: info@ftdt.org