The new exhibit is "Rivers, Roads, & Railroads: Travel & Transportation,” a celebration of Greenfield in Franklin County", as a transportation and travel center.
From indigenous trade routes, through the rise and fall of the Connecticut riverboats, to stagecoaches, trolleys, and trains, to the opening of the Mohawk Trail as a scenic automobile drive in the early 20th century, travel is a constant in local history.
Rivers served as early routes for travel, then roads crossed the rivers, bringing bridges, and, very importantly, trains.
The exhibit will feature photos, paintings, maps and other items, highlighting, in particular, recent donations from the estate of Peter Spencer Miller, including items of his grandfather Archie Spencer’s long career as an engineer on the Boston and Maine Railroad. These items supplemented many of the photographs and other documents that came from the Greenfield Public Library.
A few items on display:
Two beautiful portraits of Theodore Judah and his wife Anna, who were so deeply involved with trying to develop a transcontinental railroad.”
Anna Feron Pierce Judah, who died in 1895, was the daughter of John J. Pierce, of the prominent Pierce family of Greenfield. Theodore Dehone Judah was a civil engineer instrumental in the design and establishment of the first transcontinental railroad in the 1860s. Enormous riverboat oar that is on display - It’s the largest item in the collection.
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