After several years of a facelift, the Fall River Historical Society has launched its new website and it is jam-packed with new information, historical items, and Lizzie Borden material! So much so, that it will take a while to see it all.
Most notably, the site contains a Collections menu that offers a glimpse into the diversity of their interests, including Americana, Costumes and Accessories, Decorative Arts, Ephemera, Fall River Textile Industry, Furniture, Local History, Manuscripts, Maritime, Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture, 19th Century, Pantings, Drawings, and Sculpture, 20th Century and Contemporary, and Photographs. There are sample images of some of these collections that have never before been published and are quite amazing.
Their Lizzie Borden menu tab takes you to ELEVEN collections that the Society now holds, with samples from each. Most of these collections are well documented, and you can get an clear idea of specific holdings that will aid you in your research.
The named Lizzie Borden Collections include:
- Brigham Family Collection
- Cummings Collection
- Fleet Collection
- Hilliard Collection
- Hip Bath Collection
- Knowlton Papers
- Knowlton-Pearson Correspondence
- Lindsey Collection
- Nevius Collection
- Phillips Collection
- Stillwell Collection
- Thelen Collection
The collection also includes extensive material in a general category pertaining to Lizzie Borden, members of the Andrew Jackson Borden family, and other individuals closely associated with the Borden story. This material ranges widely from artifacts and correspondence to ephemera, photographs, and a selection of Lizzie Borden’s personal belongings, such as her 14K gold American Waltham Watch Company watch in a hand-engraved case.
In recent years, our holdings have grown substantially as a result of our curators’ extensive global research and close associations with descendants of individuals connected with the Borden story. Most notably, the FRHS has brought to light an unprecedented amount of rare and important material that once lay sequestered in private collections in Europe, Asia, and North America. Among it is the only known photograph of Lizzie Borden taken at her home, Maplecroft.
Our groundbreaking work also includes the award-winning book Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River. Our curators researched Lizzie Borden’s intimate personal relationships and made them public for the first time in the book, along with many formerly unknown facts and previously unpublished material. The result is the first look inside Lizzie Borden’s private world in the years after the crime and fresh insight into the woman behind the legend.
We are committed to maintaining our unique position at the forefront of the Borden case by uncovering additional new material about the life and trial of Lizzie Borden and sharing it with the public. Most recently, we acquired the only known photograph taken inside Maplecroft during the time the Borden sisters lived there. Donated by a descendant of Lizzie’s personal maid, Ida S. Carlson (1875 – 1966), the rare image is of Lizzie’s cherished cat, Blackie.
I highly recommend that you check this site out. Spend some time there. Enjoy!
