Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center (KTM&HC), 132 Main Street, Ridgefield, is the venue for a free World War One (WWI) Digitization Day offered by the Connecticut State Library (CSL) on Sunday, June 10, 1 to 4 p.m. On that day, area residents are invited to bring in their photographs, diaries, letters and other keepsakes from WWI for digitization by a CSL-trained team equipped to capture images of objects as well as oral histories. The digital images and stories collected will be added to the Connecticut State Library’s online archive and made freely accessible for public use.
“We are thrilled to be the venue for this,” says board president Hilary Micalizzi. “Cass Gilbert and his wife Julia, who lived here at Keeler Tavern during the war years, were intensely concerned about the war in Europe and supported U.S. involvement in what they certainly hoped would be ‘the war to end all wars.’” Digitization Day is being offered by Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center and Ridgefield Historical Society as part of Ridgefield Remembers WWI, a town-wide commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
Funded by a Common Heritage grant given to Connecticut State Library by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Digitization Day aims to create a repository of the stories of ordinary men and women who served on the front or at home during the war.
Items to be digitized should pertain to the WWI era (defined as 1914-1919) or, if post-war, must clearly reference WWI (e.g., artwork depicting the war). They must be related to wartime, home front activity or other war efforts; owned by the individual; and be original. Post-war items related to WWI veterans—including those who served on the Mexican Front in 1916—will be accepted. No photocopies, photostats or copyrighted materials will be digitized.
Digitization Day at Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center is free, but registration is required and should be made online at www.keelertavernmuseum.org/events.
Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center presents three centuries of the town’s history through the lives of the families that occupied the site starting in 1713. It offers docent-led tours of its period-furnished building on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. The Ridgefield Historical Society, 4 Sunset Lane, serves the public by preserving, interpreting and fostering knowledge of Ridgefield’s historical, cultural and architectural heritage. It is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 1 to 5 p.m. The Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, provides a variety of library, information, archival, public records, museum, and administrative services for Connecticut’s citizens, as well as for the employees and officials of all three branches of state government.