We have a new site for our special collections! For the most complete and up-to-date catalog of our materials, please visit https://archives.forbeslibrary.org/.
The Hampshire Room for Special Collections contains thousands of images documenting local history, including images of farms, factories, shops, schools, and local residents both well known and anonymous. The Northampton image collection comprises prints, glass and film negatives, lantern slides, etchings and stereographs. Other collections include the Elbridge Kingsley, Robert Emrick and Walter Corbin Collections, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette negatives from 1954-2004.
These Images From the Archives allow you to search a portion of the library's special collections which have been digitized. If you have any questions about this collection, please contact us.
Featured Item
Classical landscape (Orpheus and Eurydice)
An oil painting illustrating the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. A
river and several classically dressed figures are in foreground
with mountains in distance. Oil on linen / masonite, unsigned and
undated. Restored 2016.
Misses Julia and Rose Watson, sisters of Arthur Watson, a founding Forbes Library trustee and long-time president of its board, presented the painting to the Library in 1926. The Watson family thought it the work of eminent 17th century French painter Nicolas Poussin, who favored the Orpheus and Eurydice theme, or perhaps of a close Poussin relative. But a letter from the Director of the Louvre to Forbes Librarian Joseph L. Harrison in July, 1926, clearly refuted such a notion, ("c'est certainement pas de Poussin"), as well as any possible attribution to Gaspard Dughet, Poussin's nephew.
Later art historians believed the painting to be the work of George Loring Brown, a prominent 19th century landscape painter. A more recent appraisal found that it is not Brown either, but definitely of the Franco/Italian School, 18th century.
Reminiscent of Claude Lorraine's 17th century idyllic painting (e.g. "A Pastoral," c. 1650, Yale University Art Gallery), the work combined a theme from antiquity in an almost-recognizable mileu. Recent admirers refer to the large painting as "Orpheus and Eurydice at the Oxbow," placing the classically-garbed figures in a Connecticut River setting. The painting initially was renovated in 1941.
Misses Julia and Rose Watson, sisters of Arthur Watson, a founding Forbes Library trustee and long-time president of its board, presented the painting to the Library in 1926. The Watson family thought it the work of eminent 17th century French painter Nicolas Poussin, who favored the Orpheus and Eurydice theme, or perhaps of a close Poussin relative. But a letter from the Director of the Louvre to Forbes Librarian Joseph L. Harrison in July, 1926, clearly refuted such a notion, ("c'est certainement pas de Poussin"), as well as any possible attribution to Gaspard Dughet, Poussin's nephew.
Later art historians believed the painting to be the work of George Loring Brown, a prominent 19th century landscape painter. A more recent appraisal found that it is not Brown either, but definitely of the Franco/Italian School, 18th century.
Reminiscent of Claude Lorraine's 17th century idyllic painting (e.g. "A Pastoral," c. 1650, Yale University Art Gallery), the work combined a theme from antiquity in an almost-recognizable mileu. Recent admirers refer to the large painting as "Orpheus and Eurydice at the Oxbow," placing the classically-garbed figures in a Connecticut River setting. The painting initially was renovated in 1941.
Featured Collection
Midnight to Midnight: Northampton's self-portrait in 48 hours
Historic Northampton, in collaboration with the Northampton Camera
Club and Forbes Library, invited the people of Northampton to
photograph the city—its people, places and events—for two days in
2014: Friday, May 2nd and Saturday, May 3rd.
Featured Exhibit
150 Years of Northampton Photography
150 Years of Northampton Photography documents the evolution of the photographic process, a place and a people.