Marshall Miles Interviews-Darren Winston: The Hotchkiss Library's Historical Poster Collection Thursday November 7, 2022

Postering Sharon A Series of Programs on our newly discovered historical poster collection

Thursday, September 22, 7 pm: Leonard Marcus: National Children’s Book Week Posters Thursday, October 20, 7 pm: Leonard Marcus: World War I Posters Thursday, November 3, 7 pm: Darren Winston and David Pollack: The Library’s Poster Collection and Local History

Join the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon this fall in a series of three virtual programs presenting highlights from our recently discovered Historical Poster Collection.

On Thursday, November 3, two former Sharon residents, Darren Winston and David Pollack, will discuss the collection as a whole and highlight the particularly interesting local and Connecticut posters issued during World War I and World War II. How did the illustration change between the wars? What is the significance of the collection and what does it tell us about Sharon? Darren Winston is the Head of the Department of Books and Manuscripts at Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia. David Pollack is one of the nation’s leading poster experts and runs David Pollack Vintage Posters in Wilmington, Delaware.

When the Hotchkiss Library moved out of its Upper Main Street building in July 2021, the movers discovered an unknown drawer in the oak library table from our upstairs Connecticut Room. Inside were 100 posters that had not seen the light of day in decades. We discovered posters from WWI, WWII, several National Children’s Book Week posters from the 1940s to 1961, proclamations from the State of Connecticut, some remarkable Connecticut-specific posters from WWII, and an incredible poster announcing the Fourth of July festivities on the Sharon Green in 1918, months before the end of WWI.

The Hotchkiss Library of Sharon was selected as one of 200 libraries nationwide to receive a $10,000 grant from the American Library Association’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries in February 2022. This grant was funded from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The library has cataloged the posters and is in the process of digitizing the images. Poster conservationists have restored nineteen posters of particular significance and some of these will be on display when we return to our renovated building on the Sharon Green in 2023. These posters offer a glimpse into our nation and town at critical moments in our history. We are thrilled to add them to our special collections and to share more about them with our patrons.