Westford Museum & Historical Society present Westford 100 Years Ago
WESTFORD: The Westford Museum and Historical Society presents Westford 100 years ago: A Close up look at the Glass Plate Negative in the Hildreth Collection. On November 9 from 7-8:30pm at Westford Museum (2 Boston Road), take a moment to look back at some of the events and sights from around Westford 100 years ago! Program donation is $10. For information, visit www.musuem.westford.org.
In the early decades of the 20th century Charles L. Hildreth photographed the people and places of Westford and beyond, primarily on 4×5″ glass plates. Over 900 of these glass plates have been recently digitally restored, by Dan Lacroix, an amateur photographer. Dan created a specialized lightbox to photograph the glass negatives, allowing us to fully observe and appreciate the remarkable detail that large format photography is able to capture today.
Charles Lewis Hildreth (1879-1968) a local lawyer and served as Town Clerk from 1915 to 1966. Thanks to the meticulous documentation of Charles L. Hildreth, who served as Westford’s town clerk for 52 years, most of the images had been labeled and dated. “The paper envelopes [the slides were in] were frayed but information was still written there,” Day said. The Charles L. Hildreth collection of glass plate negatives, is on permanent loan to the Westford Historical Society by the Paul MacMillan family.
Dan Lacroix and Marilyn Day will highlight the finer, generally unseen details within a selection of Westford images, shedding light on life in our town over a century ago. Lacroix has been a member of the Westford Historical Society’s Board of Directors since 2000. He has a great interest in all things 18th century, but also in photography, which led to his desire to digitally archive this priceless collection of Westford photographs. Day is a Westford Author and Historian. She is a former director of the Westford Museum and is currently a member of the Westford Historical Society’s Board of Directors.
In the early decades of the 20th century Charles L. Hildreth photographed the people and places of Westford and beyond, primarily on 4×5″ glass plates. Over 900 of these glass plates have been recently digitally restored, by Dan Lacroix, an amateur photographer. Dan created a specialized lightbox to photograph the glass negatives, allowing us to fully observe and appreciate the remarkable detail that large format photography is able to capture today.
Charles Lewis Hildreth (1879-1968) a local lawyer and served as Town Clerk from 1915 to 1966. Thanks to the meticulous documentation of Charles L. Hildreth, who served as Westford’s town clerk for 52 years, most of the images had been labeled and dated. “The paper envelopes [the slides were in] were frayed but information was still written there,” Day said. The Charles L. Hildreth collection of glass plate negatives, is on permanent loan to the Westford Historical Society by the Paul MacMillan family.
Dan Lacroix and Marilyn Day will highlight the finer, generally unseen details within a selection of Westford images, shedding light on life in our town over a century ago. Lacroix has been a member of the Westford Historical Society’s Board of Directors since 2000. He has a great interest in all things 18th century, but also in photography, which led to his desire to digitally archive this priceless collection of Westford photographs. Day is a Westford Author and Historian. She is a former director of the Westford Museum and is currently a member of the Westford Historical Society’s Board of Directors.