COLLECTIONS

The Weston Historical Society collection covers almost three centuries of Weston history. It is divided into four categories: Objects, Archives, Photographs, and Books. Click here to read excerpts from the Collections Policy, or select from the links below to sample our collections.

Objects such as our Livermore Sampler, acquired in 2008, help us understand the past. Click here to see a selection, including a milk bottle from Ferndale Dairy on South Avenue, a butter mold from Charles Dean’s “Oakridge” Estate, a Weston Grange ribbon, a plaque of General John Burgoyne made from the wood of Weston’s Burgoyne Elm, and more.

The Archives collection includes letters, documents, reports, newspaper clippings, maps, plans, drawings and prints, and memorabilia, a word that means “things that stir remembrance.” Click here to see examples, from a Friendly Society program to a 1938 class book, predecessor to today’s high school yearbooks.

Our Photographs are organized by family name, subject, and location. Visitors use these photos to find images of relatives, explore topics from “agriculture and gardening” to “wars” or find views of their street or even their house. Click here to see photos from a scrapbook belonging to Philip Coburn (1899-1983), author of the memoir, Growing Up in Weston. Coburn photographed landscapes, such as the golf scene pictured below and left, and buildings throughout the town, many of which are no longer extant.

The Society collects local history Books from Weston and neighboring communities. Middlesex County histories, genealogies from Weston families, school yearbooks, cookbooks published by Weston institutions, Weston directories and phone books, Town Reports, ledgers, autograph books and books of remembrance, scrapbooks, and other books relating to town history. Click here to see some examples, such as the Hook & Hastings organ factory scrapbook pictured here.

The historical society thanks Anna Melone for her donation of a milk bottle from the Blood Dairy. Gilbert and Ella Blood lived in what is now known as the Melone Homestead at 27 Crescent Street from 1885 to the early 1920s. Beginning about 1891 he began keeping cows, chickens, and pigs. The milk bottle is embossed with the words “G.A. Blood Weston, Pure Jersey Milk, Registered”. This rare surviving bottle, dug up on the property, adds to the society's collection of Weston dairy farm milk bottles.

Our thanks also to Fran Howell for her gift of her late 1940s Girl Scout uniform, complete with many badges sewed on the sleeve, along with a red scarf, belt, and additional items to complete the ensemble. Making the gift particularly special is the inclusion of a 1949 photo of Fran wearing her uniform.

Mary Marder holding up one side of a patriotic quilt made as a school project in honor of the United States Bicentennial anniversary in 1976.

WHS volunteer Mary Gregory working with collections

Mary Marder cataloguing oversize documents

Drabbington Inn sign