A young Dan Thompson, with neighbor Grace Howard, walks down Southside Road in New Harbor toward home, ca. 1920. (Photo courtesy Merle Thompson)
The Old Bristol Historical Society will be kicking off its summer talk series Sunday, June 24, at 7 p.m. at the Bristol Mills Congregational Church, with a slide show presentation of images taken from the society’s archives. Titled “Down Memory Lane,” the show will be hosted by co-presidents Belinda Osier and Chuck Rand, and will include historical images of people, activities, and of each of Bristol’s villages.
Those who have attended society slide presentations in the past will see some of their favorite images as well as many new ones. Included in the show will be a number of recent additions to the archive, including images shared by Jack Brackett, Merle Thompson, and Carla Chadwick, the granddaughter of the late Leon Munro, from their family collections.
Concerned about the progressing deterioration of old photographs and the possibility of family collections being moved out of town, dispersed, or even thrown away, the Old Bristol Historical Society launched its Digital Images Archive Project in 2015. Since then, the society has scanned close to 3,000 images documenting the visual history of Bristol and its people. While the archive includes a number of images housed in the permanent collection, the majority of images have been loaned to the society for scanning and then returned to their owners. The society’s goal is to collect 10,000 images and eventually make the archive available online.
Those who have any old photos of Bristol to share, including family portraits, are invited to stop by the McKinley School in Pemaquid Falls on July 8 from 9-10 a.m. for the first of several Scanning Sundays planned for this summer. Archivist Rand will be on hand to scan up to 15 photos while one waits. For larger collections, contact Osier at 677-2996 or Rand at 553-0034.
