The Library’s Local History Collection provides a collection of books, photographs, videos, and maps with an emphasis on the history of the Orange community, its people, and its institutions. Materials in the Local History Collection do not circulate and must be used in the Library.
In addition to the local history materials located here, the Library’s collection includes:
- Amity High School yearbooks (1956-present)
- Amity Observer (1998-2011)
- Amity Star (1950-1953)
- Orange News (1966-1972)
- Orange Town Times (1972-1976)
- Orange-Milford city directories (1951; 1953; 1956-1957; 1959-1980; 1982-1983; 1985-1988; 1990)
- Our Town (1963-2004)
- Register Nutmegger West (1979)
We also offer digital presentations of the following items in the collection:
- The manuscript Constitution, membership roster, and minutes of the North Milford Temperance Society, 1830-1837
- The manuscript Constitution, membership roster, and minutes of the Orange Washington Temperance Society, 1841-1845, and the Orange Total Abstinence Society, 1848-1858
- History of Orange, compiled in 1949 by Mary R. Woodruff
- The Amity Star, a newspaper published from 1950 to 1953
- Historical Addresses and Manual of the Church of Christ Congregational in Orange, Connecticut, 1910
- Orange 150, published in 1972 to honor the town’s 150th anniversary
- Orange, Connecticut Historic District, an illustrated description (revised edition, 1986)
- Orange oral history video files:
- Library early history: clippings, documents and notes connected to the origins of the Orange Public Library/Case Memorial Library
- Index to local history information in Ginny Reinhard’s columns published in the Orange Town News
The following resources may also be helpful in your local history research:
Orange Historical Society
P.O. Box 784
Orange, CT 06477
203-795-3106 or 203-795-6465
www.orangehistory.org
Connecticut Historical Society Museum & Library
1 Elizabeth Street @ Asylum Avenue
Hartford, CT 06105
860-236-5621
www.chs.org
Connecticut State Library
History & Genealogy
231 Capitol Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
860-757-6580
https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/hg/home
Godfrey Memorial Library
134 Newfield Street
Middletown, CT 06457
860-346-4375
www.godfrey.org
Recommends calling ahead to ensure a volunteer is there to help you with your search.
LDS – Woodbridge
990 Racebrook Road
Woodbridge, CT 06525
203-387-7799
New England Historic Genealogical Society
99 – 101 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
Toll free: 1-888-296-3447
617-536-5740
www.americanancestors.org