By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY CALVIN B. TAYLOR HOUSE MUSEUM
Local residents are invited to visit the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum on North Main Street in Berlin throughout October to help identify townspeople in old photographs.

(Oct. 1, 2020) Berlin residents are invited to be volunteer curators at the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum this month.

By identifying people in photographs that have been donated to the museum over the years, community members can help preserve the town’s history.

“We usually are the ones presenting the information out to the community in our exhibits,” said Melissa Reid, the president of the museum. “But this is a way we feel like it gives the community the chance to be involved in sharing their knowledge with the museum. We think that’s important. We want all the stories of Berlin to be told, and it’s with the community that can do that.”

Throughout October, the photographs will be displayed in the Harrison Room at the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum on North Main Street in Berlin.

“Because the museum is sort of the receptacle or the repository of a lot of Berlin history, usually people donate [photographs] to us in different sets,” Reid said. “We have them sort of grouped by theme. Like, we have a whole set of The Atlantic Hotel restoration.”

She added that the museum has collections of photographs from “Runaway Bride” and “Tuck Everlasting” as well.

The photographs at the museum date from the birth of photography to the early 2000s.

“We have a photograph that was one of the original photographs that [Eastman Kodak] did actually,” Reid said.

Recently, Reid and Susan Taylor, the museum curator, were looking through photo albums to answer inquiries about town history.

“We did have somebody contact the museum asking about the fence that goes around the front of The Atlantic Hotel, that wrought iron fence,” Reid said. “When [Taylor] was researching through The Atlantic Hotel file, she came across this whole batch of photographs.”

Reid said the discovery of the photographs of the hotel led to a bigger discussion about who was captured in the old images.

“We realize that as people are passing away in our community, we have large groups of photographs that we don’t know who the people are,” Reid said. “We thought what a wonderful opportunity as part of the outreach to the town through the museum to actually have people come in … and if they recognize anybody to put a sticky note on it, which would allow us as we work toward digitizing our collection, we would have a written description to go with the photograph.”

Reid also expressed gratitude for the town of Berlin and community members who shared the museum’s social media post about identifying the photographs.

“We’re hoping that all of those views and shares translate into people actually coming and helping us make sure that as many photographs can be identified as possible, so we’re not losing that aspect of the history of Berlin,” Reid said.

The museum is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Appointments are not necessary, but the museum staff requests community members follow the same protocols for tours to view the photographs during the novel coronavirus pandemic. To schedule a time, call 410-641-1019 or email taylorhousemuseum@verizon.net.

Currently, six people are permitted inside the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum at one time.

For more information, visit taylorhousemuseum.org or the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum Facebook page.