About the CSL Digital Collections
The Connecticut State Library's Digital Collections feature materials from the Library, the Museum of Connecticut History, and the State Archives.
Collections to date include:
Aerial Photographs | Connecticut State Library History | Items from the Archives | Items from the Library | WPA Architectural Survey
Ongoing projects are digitizing and posting aerial photographs from the Aerial Surveys done over the years, beginning with the 1934 Aerial Survey.
Many items in the subject collections are digital copies of items in State Archive Picture Groups (PG) and Record Groups (RG). Picture and Record Groups represented include:
Images from the history of the Connecticut State Library, from its earliest home in the Old State House to its purpose-built 1909 building. Web exhibits prepared by Nancy Peluso narrate the development of the Library:
Many items in the subject collections are digital copies of items in Library collections.
Connecticut's Census of Old Buildings (State Archives Record Group 33:28) was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Using Colonial Dames books, Edgar L. Heermance's The Connecticut Guide: What to See and Where to Find It, and visits to each town, the project compiled survey reports on nearly 5,000 buildings, most illustrated with photographs. The Building Survey Form Reports contain architectural and historical data on individual houses and other buildings. Most of the buildings have no name, and the locations may be general. Most fieldwork was complete by 1937, but some work continued until spring 1942.
This online collection contains the information from the Building Survey Forms as metadata and the photo and sketch(es) of detail, if any. They are arranged alphabetically by town; sub-arranged by number.
See Architectural Survey, Census of Old Buildings for additional information.
