Danbury Museum Staff & Board of Trustees

43 Main Street & 5 Mountainville Avenue, Danbury, CT

www.danburymuseum.org

Facebook: Danbury Museum & Historical Society

Instagram: @danburymuseum

Twitter: @danburymuseum

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@danburymuseum7670

Board President: Geoffrey Herald

Executive Director & City Historian: Brigid Guertin

b.guertin@danbury-ct.gov

203-743-5200

Our Mission:

The Danbury Museum and Historical Society Is YOUR hometown museum. Preserving, protecting, and educating Danbury’s friends, neighbors, and visitors about the heritage and history of our community is our main focus! Situated in downtown Danbury, at the southern end of Main Street, the main museum campus is composed of five buildings. Huntington Hall is a handicap accessible exhibit space and houses the museum offices, research library, and archives. Huntington Hall is also a place for local groups to hold meetings, (groups as varied as

the Danbury Garden Club, Friends of Danbury Cemeteries, Daughters of the American Revolution–Mary Wooster Chapter, Fabric Friends of the Danbury Museum, Danbury Mineralogical Society, the Arion Singing Society, and the Friends of the Danbury Museum) and is used by the museum to host a diverse series of lectures and programs that are free and open to the public. 

The museum preserves several historic buildings including the John & Mary Rider

House (c. 1785), the John Dodd Hat Shop (c. 1790), the Marian Anderson Studio, the King Street Schoolhouse, the Little Red Schoolhouse, and (over on Mountainville Avenue) the Charles Ives Birthplace Museum is now open for tours as well! The collections displayed in these buildings encompass everything from historic Danbury-made hats, to colonial kitchen equipment from the 18th century, to the death mask of Charles Ives, to the gowns worn by Marian Anderson on stage during her career. The archival collection is an amazing example of diverse ephemera tracking the life and lifestyles of Danburians past and present. In addition,

historic newspapers, city directories, letters, diaries, and a wide ranging photo collection provide a unique glimpse of our local, regional, and national history. The museum gardens are open dawn to dusk and encompass both historic medicinal gardens as well as colorful formal space with many areas to sit and enjoy an oasis of nature downtown. Since 1941 the museum has preserved Danbury’s heritage and our historic properties as it continues its mission to increase history based tourism, museum programming, and the expansion of local history curriculum in

our public schools. The Danbury Museum is thrilled to provide tours of the historic buildings in its collection, and to safeguard the documents that reflect our city’s history.

What’s new at the Danbury Museum?

● Utilizing a combination of state, city, and private funding, the Danbury Museum

successfully rehabilitated the exterior of the Charles Ives Birthplace. Interior work,

generously funded by the Savings Bank of Danbury, in the world famous composer’s first home, has been recently completed and this nationally recognized musical landmark is now available to tour by residents and visitors to our community.

● As an outgrowth of our pandemic programming, the Danbury Museum has continued to create exterior exhibitions on our Main Street campus, exploring our community’s unique history in fun and engaging ways. These outdoor exhibits at our Main Street campus are free and open to the public.

● The Danbury Museum has reinstated historic house tours and is in compliance with ever-changing recommendations of our local, state, and national health officials so that we might best serve our community and visitors in a safe environment.

● The Danbury Museum continues to add a tremendous amount of downloadable,

interactive content to the museum website. Please check out the latest additions to our digital content areas on the Danbury Museum website for new, entertaining, easily accessible, and ever-evolving highlights from the museum's archival library.

● The museum continues to concentrate on highlighting, through social media, Danbury’s local history, and provides a rich diversity of programs focused on local historians, authors, and artists. For more info, please check out our social media platforms, and social media curated photo exhibitions.

● The museum continues its initiative to increase school programming for Danbury

students. During the next few months the Danbury Museum will continue to adapt and create digital content to complement the Danbury Public Schools social studies

curriculum at a variety of grade levels.

● Research services are readily available for addressing local history and genealogy

related queries. We are thrilled to have accommodated students, family historians,

authors, and filmmakers from all over the globe. Our microfilm collection of Danbury newspapers and archival library, located in Huntington Hall, is accessible to researchers by appointment.

● The Danbury Museum has expanded into the virtual realm, making continuous

improvements to our extensive website and social media platforms, providing the first stop for researchers and visitors. We are proud to provide digital content to over

1,000,000 accounts annually.

 2021-2022 Board Minutes/Agendas