Westport Historical Society

Betty and Ralph Sheffer Gallery
Putting Westport on the Map: 
A look at our town through maps old and new 
In our Little Gallery:  Zoom in on Wesport                                  

 Both exhibits continue the celebration of Westport’s 175 anniversary of becoming a township:  Putting Westport on the Map takes a look at our town  using maps old and new, while Zoom in on Westport  looks at us today from the air, on the ground and through the eyes of our children.

Asked why do an exhibit on maps, Bob Weingarten the exhibits’ curator replied that it had all started with a Westport Historical Society volunteer who found a tossed out cardboard poster mailer while doing a site cleanup about ten years ago.  He put it aside, thinking he would have use for it later and stored it in his attic.   

Recently, when he decided to recycle it, he found that the mailer still contained a map of Connecticut, gritty, dirty and falling apart.  Taking a closer look he saw it was dated 1812. 

 Wondering if it was worth saving because of its age, he brought the map to the Society  and  consulted Bob Weingarten, WHS House History chairman.  They later showed it to Gordon Joseloff, our First Selectman and also a map collector.  He agreed that it might have some historical value both to the town and WHS and should be seen by a legitimate map dealer.  He suggested Westporter Robert Augustyn, of  Martayan, Lan,  Augustyn Inc.  a dealer specializing in antique maps, globes, city views and rare books in New York City. 

 Augustyn believed the map to be an original and offered to restore it, if it was donated to the Westport Historical Society archives.    Following its restoration by Augustyn, it was framed (thanks to Westport Town Clerk Patricia Strauss) by using funds from a Connecticut grant, established especially for the restoration of our state’s maps and town records. 

 Following this exhibit, the map, although it remains the property of the Westport Historical Society, will be on view near the Tax Collector’s office.

 “By the time we had framed the map, we had decided that maps were very interesting and certainly provided information not available through any other source.  We also checked the Society archives and found a treasure trove of maps showing our area before and after it actually became a township in 1835,” said Weingarten.

 Included in the Betty & Ralph Sheffer Gallery exhibit will be an introduction to where the oldest maps were found, rare antique maps of pre-Colonial America and early American maps from private collections.  There is a map that shows Washington’s horseback journeys and stops in our town and a humorous map drawn in 1921 by Westport artist John Held, Jr. A historic collection of globes marking changes in the world’s political geography will be on display. 

Zoom in on Westport on view in the Little Gallery shows stunning aerial views of Westport today taken by Larry Untermeyer, plus a map of how Main Street looked with its Mom and Pop shops, researched by Susan Malloy and designed by Miggs Burroughs.

Maps on display from our education department take a  look at Westport through our children’s eyes. 

Be prepared to see all this and much more! This is an exhibit you will want to visit more than once  before it ends on January 8, 2011. Keep checking our website  for updated postings and special events for young and old.