During June 2022, while digging a trench for a new drainage pipe, construction workers uncovered dozens of objects that had been buried under the lawn of the Greenwich Historical Society. The objects were gathered and cleaned by members of staff and two Greenwich High School interns before being cataloged and researched. Unfortunately, any dating of … Read more
We are lucky here at the Greenwich Historical Society to be the benefactors of the many local history lovers who entrust us with their artifacts. As collectors and stewards of Greenwich history, we see the full gamut of historical objects. The extraordinary and the mundane – from a handwritten letter by Arthur Conan Doyle to … Read more
“Elmer picked grapes and before Mrs. June left she did 30 glasses of grape jell. Elmer’s heart is full – likewise his belly…” Emma Constant Holley MacRae to her mother, Josephine Holley, October 1, 1902 This letter from Emma Constant Holley MacRae to her mother reveals more than just the fondness her husband, the artist … Read more
The Crispus Attucks Association was a community organization formally started in 1941 with the mission to provide programming for the Black population of Greenwich. The home of the Association, the Crispus Attucks Center, moved from the Bethel AME Church basement to 33 Railroad Avenue and then to 6 Lewis Street, and served as the heart … Read more
While the history of the Cos Cob art colony has become well known to scholars of American Impressionism, its role in the development of American Modernism is less familiar. In December 1911 Elmer MacRae was among the group who founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in New York.
In the summer of 1896, Elmer MacRae arrived at the Holley Inn. He was a student from the Art Students League who was there for a class in outdoor painting, but he also found Constant Holley. They fell in love. From the beginning Constant encouraged Elmer to draw and paint flowers.
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