Jane Lyman Holley, the Governor's first wife
Today I have an appointment with Salisbury's Town Historian to look at a collection documenting Holleywood's history. Katherine Chilcoat is warm and welcoming, and after we go through a few files in the library (boxes brim with memorabilia I can't wait to revisit--old maps, Holley's diaries, even bills of sale), she walks me to another building to look at paintings and photographs. On the wall hang family portraits preserved by The Salisbury Association. This one is of the Governor's first wife, who never got to live in Holleywood. She died twenty years before it was built, two months after giving birth to Alexander Lyman Holley* who in 1863 brought the Bessemer Steel process from England to the US. Almost unbelievably, the painting was discovered in the Holley-Williams House attic, rolled around a curtain pole.
I expect Katherine to pull photographs from dusty art archives but to my surprise, she powers up a Mac and we trawl through albums in iPhoto. When she produces the actual, handheld prints, the one that most enchants me is stereoscopic (see it here).
*Thanks to Katherine Chilcoat for her correction to original post which mistakenly identified Jane Lyman's son.
I expect Katherine to pull photographs from dusty art archives but to my surprise, she powers up a Mac and we trawl through albums in iPhoto. When she produces the actual, handheld prints, the one that most enchants me is stereoscopic (see it here).
*Thanks to Katherine Chilcoat for her correction to original post which mistakenly identified Jane Lyman's son.
Town Historian Katherine Chilcoat stewards Holleywood's history
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