The New Haven Museum and Historical Society (originally known as the

New Haven Colony The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America from 1638 to 1664 primarily in parts of what is now the state of Connecticut, but also with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The history o ...

Historical Society) was founded in 1862 in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

for the purposes of preserving and presenting the region’s history. The museum has a collection containing art, photography, furniture and other artifacts from throughout New Haven’s history and regularly presents programs and special exhibits.New Haven Museum
/ref> The Museum features exhibitions on New Haven,

La Amistad ''La Amistad'' (; Spanish for ''Friendship'') was a 19th-century two- masted schooner, owned by a Spaniard colonizing Cuba. It became renowned in July 1839 for a slave revolt by Mende captives, who had been captured and sold to European slave ...

, local art and decorative arts, with collections associated with

Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Although Whitney hi ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, Yale,

East Rock East Rock of south-central Connecticut, United States, with a high point of , is a long trap rock ridge located primarily in the neighborhood of East Rock on the north side of the city of New Haven. A prominent landscape feature and a popular ...

, Noah Webster,

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...

as well as changing exhibitions. Educational programs provide interactive inquiry-based learning on local history. The Whitney Research Library at the museum contains manuscript and archival holdings relevant to the New Haven area from the time of the first settlement to the present. The collection includes rare books, more than 300 manuscript collections, including personal papers, business and institutional records, court and municipal documents, maps, 4,000 architectural drawings and resources, account books and a collection of approximately 75,000 photographs. It also contains approximately 30,000 printed titles including monographs and pamphlets. The library also includes genealogical materials, vital statistics and colonial and town records, passenger arrival lists to American ports, Federal census schedules for New Haven County on microfilm and a complete set of New Haven city directories from 1840. The Colonial revival style current building was built in 1929 and was designed by J. Frederick Kelly. The building includes a number of artifacts from demolished New Haven houses including a mantelpiece and urns from the Nathan Smith house and a mantelpiece from the

house.E. M. Brown, New Haven: A guide to architecture and urban design, Yale University Press, 1976. The Ingersoll Room in the museum is decorated with furniture and portraits from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries documenting the home and life of New Haven’s Ingersoll family.

References

{{Authority control Museums in New Haven, Connecticut History museums in Connecticut Historical societies in Connecticut 1862 establishments in Connecticut Museums established in 1862