The Blanchard House Blog

This mid-19th century view of Elm Square showing EA Edwards Hairdressing and Barbershop is one of the earliest photographs in the collection.

One of the best resources owned by the Historical Society is our collection of over 15,000 historic photographs of Andover. For the past few years, a small group of dedicated volunteers has been scanning and cataloging the photographs. Once scanned, the original photographs are stored in the Society’s Archives to protect them from damage caused by handling. Printed copies of the scanned photographs are available for researchers in the Library.

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The printed copies are a short-term solution. In time we will have more computer research stations in the Library and researchers will be able to search the collection more efficiently using our computer database.

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To let readers know the scope of the Society’s historic photograph collection, we will post a photograph a week. Researchers have access to the photograph collection during open Library hours, Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10:00 am-4:00 pm.