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Bela Carter · portrait published 1906COLLECTION 001 Cemeteries
West Cemetery
Meriden
Recovering the names, family connections and burial references of a historic Meriden cemetery.
Opening date under research
SILENT GROUNDS COLLECTIVE · DIGITAL READING ROOM
Connecticut history,
in pictures.
Step into the streets, workplaces and gathering places that shaped our communities. Start with a photograph. Follow the story.
OPEN FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHPreserve. Restore. Remember.
A nonprofit educational archive103 collections · Original sources · Searchable downloads
LOOK CLOSER · OPEN ANY IMAGE
A window into the past
2011
English Station in the neighborhood streetscape
The power station rises beyond a New Haven intersection. The street-level view shows how the industrial building remained part of the surrounding neighborhood after generation ended.
1936
Yale Bowl in 1936
Carl Van Vechten photographed the Bowl more than twenty years after its opening. The empty curves of seating make the stadium’s continuous shape especially clear.
Circa 1865–1870
New Haven Harbor from the depot tower
Whitney, Beckwith & Paradice’s stereoscopic view looks toward the harbor and Long Wharf. The two adjacent pictures form one stereograph, preserved here as a complete historical object.
Image credit & source
Whitney, Beckwith & Paradice -- Photographer; Public domain; Wikimedia Commons
Original source1957
New Haven Alcos at New Haven 1957 postcard
1970s postcard of two Alco FA-1 units at New Haven Yard in mid-1957
August 13, 2010
Cedarcrest in August 2010
A surviving Cedarcrest building photographed in Newington in August 2010. The image records the campus in its later hospital era, a century after the tuberculosis institution opened.
Image credit & source
Josh Michtom, Flickr; CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Reproduced for this noncommercial nonprofit archive under the same license.
Original source · Reuse terms2008-10-24
Andrew Mellon Library
Andrew Mellon Library, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, Connecticut, USA. Built 1925.
Published 1919
Winchester Hospital across the grounds
The main hospital appears beyond its open grounds. The 1919 history describes the Army hospital occupying the William Wirt Winchester memorial buildings. A place associated with tuberculosis care became part of the wartime medical system.
Image credit & source
History and Roster of the United States Army General Hospital No. 16 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1919), scan page 12. Internet Archive / Library of Congress.
Original source · Reuse termsUndated; historic engineering survey photograph
Tract K shooting range: northeast exterior
Winchester Tract K shooting range, looking southwest.
Image credit & source
Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service; photographer not identified in source metadata / Public domain
Original sourcePublished 1917
The Union Metallic Cartridge works in 1917
Rail lines fill the foreground of this broad view of the Bridgeport works. Factory blocks, chimneys and a water tower show how the business occupied an industrial landscape connected to transport. Published in a 1917 local history, the photograph records a working complex long before later abandonment.
Image credit & source
George Curtis Waldo, History of Bridgeport and Vicinity, volume I (1917), plate facing p. 182; Internet Archive via Wikimedia Commons.
Original source · Reuse termscirca 1930–1945
A souvenir city after dark
The printed moon, bright signs and crowded amusement frontage make Beach Street into a nighttime destination. This is a colored linen postcard, not an unaltered color photograph. It records how Savin Rock was pictured and sold to visitors.
Image credit & source
Tichnor Brothers, publisher. Boston Public Library, Tichnor Brothers Collection. Public domain in the United States.
Original sourceCirca 1977–1978
Bruce Springsteen at the New Haven Coliseum
Bruce Springsteen performing on stage, identified by source as New Haven Coliseum. Bruce Springsteen performing at the Coliseum, around 1977–1978. Concert photographs reveal the cultural life inside an often-debated building.
Image credit & source
Carl Lender / Carl Lender on Flickr; Wikimedia Commons
Original source · Reuse termsJuly 21, 1968
Open car 1425 at the Branford trolley museum
Roger Puta photographed the former New Haven Connecticut Company open car at the museum in East Haven. This is a preservation-era photograph, not an image of regular street service.
THE COLLECTION CATALOG
Browse by town.
PEOPLE · PLACES · MEMORY
Photographs first. Stories close behind.
Browse 513 images across the archive, with dates, short captions and a closer look at the people and places they show.
County names follow the historical geographic boundaries used in these records.
TOWN READING ROOM
Meriden
Bela Carter · portrait published 1906
Cottage D · photograph published in the school’s 1900 reportCOLLECTION 005 Schools & care
Meriden Boys’ Home & School
Meriden, Connecticut
Historic campus photographs, physicians’ mortality reports and cemetery research bring the surviving institutional record into view.
Opening / first recorded · March 1, 1854
Gold & Silver Plate at the Columbian Exposition · 1893COLLECTION 007 Businesses
Meriden Britannia Company
Meriden, Connecticut
A founders’ photograph, factory views and original advertisements trace a Meriden manufacturer from metalworking to international silverware sales.
Opening / first recorded · 1852 organization; expansion in 1854–1856
Factory A: Meriden Silver Plate Company · 1906COLLECTION 008 Businesses
Meriden Silver
Meriden, Connecticut
Factory images and an illustrated 1883 trade catalog reveal the products, ordering systems and separate companies behind the Silver City.
Opening / first recorded · Meriden Silver Plate: 1869–1870 formation and operation
Service building and floor plans · 1914COLLECTION 015 Hospitals & care
Undercliff Sanatorium
Meriden, Connecticut
Early building photographs, floor plans and state reports follow the hillside sanatorium and the development of its children’s program.
Opening / first recorded · Undercliff Association: November 15, 1907
Abandoned railroad bridge over Washington Avenue in Waterbury, March 2023 · Pi.1415926535 / CC BY-SA 4.0COLLECTION 062 Railways & transit
Meriden, Waterbury & Connecticut River Railroad
Waterbury · Meriden · Cheshire
Bridgework in Waterbury preserves traces of a railroad that disappeared in stages.
Opening / first recorded · 1885 opening; 1888 Waterbury extension
COLLECTION 096 Military & civic buildings
Meriden Armory
Meriden
A monumental hall on East Main Street: military service and Meriden’s public gathering place.
Opening / first recorded · 1908
Broad Street Cemetery in Meriden, CT · 2026-01-24. MConradWard; CC BY-SA 4.0; Wikimedia CommonsCOLLECTION 098 Cemeteries & remembrance
Broad Street Cemetery
Meriden
Weathered stones and remembered names at one of Meriden’s early burial grounds.
Opening / first recorded · Burials documented by 1771
A Middletown punch service at the Centennial · Published 1876. Souvenir of the Centennial Exhibition (1876), p. 108; public-domain illustration; digital reproduction credited to Design Meriden / art design café.COLLECTION 103 Industry & working life
Middletown’s Silver Industries
Middletown · Meriden
Tableware, factory skills and a divided company history: the silver-plating businesses of Middletown.
Opening / first recorded · 1863–1864 — predecessor business; separate Silver Co. formed 1899
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These are growing research collections. A source link identifies material held elsewhere; it does not mean a copy is included. Dates, credits and gaps accompany the records.