Westport Museum is in the process of a multi-year cataloging of its archival holdings with the aim toward making resource guides and finding aids available for research use. It is the museum’s goal to describe our historic records and holdings in a way that both accurately reflects the historic record while remaining respectful to those represented in the collections particularly those from underrepresented communities including Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other marginalized groups. Despite this, researchers may come across language describing period records and within them that today we consider racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist and ableist in nature. Read the rest of our Statement on Potentially Offensive Language in Westport Museum’s Finding Aids and Resource Descriptions here.
WM manages extensive collections including archives, costumes, objects and art which are used by curators, scholars, and educational institutions to foster historical exploration through the use of primary resources.
Finding Aids
Our archival collection houses a library of books on Westport, Fairfield County, and Connecticut history, genealogy records and more. Our temperature-controlled vault contains collections of papers and documents on all areas of Westport history: maps, photographs, family histories, house histories, and much more.
A list of record groups accessible at the Westport Museum is available for download to the right. Full finding aids for specific collections are available for download below.
Westport Town Records
Westport Places Collection
Westport Business and Commerce Collection
Miscellaneous Personal Papers
Adams Family Papers
Davies Family Papers
Named Research Collections
Sigrid Schultz Papers
Sherwood Family Papers
Green’s Farms Congregational Church Records
Westport Schools Records
Saugatuck Congregational Church Records
Summary finding aids can be found at Connect Archives Online. To explore these collections follow the button to the left.
Research Usage & Appointments
Our collections are available by appointment upon request for all researchers. If you cannot research with us in person, our staff and volunteers can perform research for you. Please consult our policies on research and image usage below for more details on fees and usage.
If it is determined that it will take more than 15 minutes of research to attempt to answer your request, you will be informed that payment of a research fee is required based upon the extent of the research project. If a fee is required, you will be informed of the amount and your request will be assigned a queue number upon payment of any applicable fee.
Please contact the Archives Department to discuss your collection questions. To make an appointment please use our Research Request Form.