Admit it:  does your household include a drawer or a shelf full of photos you’ve been meaning to put into a photograph album for months or even years?  Have you ever considered scrapbooking? For Windsor’s Renata Shields, the impetus came when her son was born and she and her husband searched unsuccessfully for photographs of themselves as children to pass down to him.  Determined not to repeat history, Shields started recording her young son’s life and activities in scrapbook form and is now an accomplished scrapbooking artist and teacher. 

Renata Shields is not alone.  Scrapbooking has become one of the most popular hobbies in the country.  Join us at Windsor Historical Society on Saturday, March 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. for the first of two beginning scrapbooking workshops led by Shields.   Bring eight photos and Renata Shields will provide you with everything you need to get started with this creative, fun and compelling pastime, as you create a scrapbook page to take home.  You will leave with ideas for creating future pages plus a catalogue including products such as organizational tools, cropping tools, photo-safe pages, pens, stickers, stamps and stencils.  Cost for the program is $10 per participant which covers the cost of materials.  A follow-up workshop will be held on Saturday, March 29th from 1-5 p.m.  This will be a concentrated session for working on personal scrapbook projects with a presentation “Getting Organized:  How to Sort and Manage your Photos.”  The cost for the second workshop is $10.  The workshops are appropriate for adult and family groups including school aged children. 

In the past several generations, albums have evolved from photos mounted on black pages with triangular photo-mount corners to sophisticated presentations with photographs, text, and memorabilia such as letters and photocopied newspaper clippings. Stickers, alphabet letters, ribbon and lace, decorated background papers, eyelets, brads, stencils, embossing and more are used to create visual tours de force.  Including descriptions of the event or person portrayed is called journaling.  Creative journalists are storytellers, often including poetry, song lyrics, quotations and personal reflections in their narratives.  Such scrapbooks are valuable to historians as well as families because family histories that might not otherwise be preserved are included with family photographs.

Serious scrapbookers use archival-quality supplies:  acid and lignin-free papers and fade-resistant inks designed to preserve scrapbooks for posterity.  And there’s a social aspect to scrapbooking.  Scrapbookers gather at once another’s homes, at scrapbook stores and at scrapbook conventions to create their scrapbook pages together and share ideas and techniques.  “Cropping” parties have been compared to old-time quilting bees.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn an exciting pastime that preserves family photographs and reminiscences for future generations to enjoy. Reservations for the programs are needed by Friday March 7th and Friday, March 28th.    Parking is available around Palisado Green and in the First Church and Windsor Discovery Center Parking lots. Windsor Historical Society’s newest exhibition Camera Crazy:  Photographers of Windsor 1885-1930 will be open for viewing before each program. 

These events are part of an exciting year-long round of programs planned by Windsor Historical Society, the Town of Windsor, and the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.  For more information about these programs, please visit www.windsorhistoricalsociety.org or www.Windsor375.com.  Many generous sponsors and supporters have helped to make Windsor Historical Society’s events possible including:  

Presenting Sponsors: Anonymous Donor; Connecticut Humanities Council; Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; Anonymous Donor

Adventurer Sponsors:  Dan J. and Alice Ford Ferraina; Travelers Connecticut Foundation; Windsor Federal Savings;      

Discoverer Sponsors: MiddleOak Specialty Insurance; Alstom Power

Founder Sponsors:  Anonymous Donor; Dill, Joyce & Thresher Insurance; ING; Jim and Kathi Martin; Rabbett Insurance Agency, Savings Bank Life Insurance;

Settler Sponsors: Alford Associates, Inc.; Bill Selig Family Foundation; Carmon Funeral Homes; Elizabeth Feser;  Griffin Land and Nurseries, Inc.; HD2 Development; Pelton Excavation Company; Price Chopper; Rotary Club of Windsor; Stop and Shop Supermarkets; Webster Bank.

The Windsor Historical Society, founded in 1921, invites visitors to explore the people, places, and events that have shaped Windsor for over 370 years.  The Society’s museum includes changing and permanent exhibition galleries; a hands-on history learning center for families; a research library and manuscript collection housing Windsor photographs, documents, ephemera, and genealogical materials, a museum shop and two historic houses open to the public—the 1758 John and Sarah Strong House and the 1767 Dr. Hezekiah Chaffee House. 

The Windsor Historical Society is located at 96 Palisado Avenue (Route 159) and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.  General admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students and free to children under 12 and WHS members.  Call (860) 688-3813 or visit us on the web at www.windsorhistoricalsociety.org for directions to the Society and more information about programs.