Looking for photos of Nashua in the olden days? The library's Hunt Room local history collection includes hundreds of photos of Nashua dating back to the 1800s. About 400 of these photos have been copied, numbered, and indexed for easy access. The rest are organized in folders by topic.

If you're interested, stop by the Reference Desk and ask to see the collection. The 400 that have been indexed are available for browsing in binders. To find what you're looking for quickly, check the subject index. It will give you the number of each photo showing a particular subject.

Once you find what you want, the photos can be reproduced for a fee.

We have also embarked on a project to improve access to the collection. Through the efforts of the Reference Department and Simmons College graduate student Donna Albino, our historical photos will be scanned and a digital copy of each photo will eventually be made available for electronic searching. In addition to creating digital copies, we are adding more photos to the subject index, recording descriptions of each one. Once the project is completed, this information will make it easier to search the library's entire photo collection to locate the type of photo you want. Over time, we will be making the photos available for searching via the library's web site, www.nashualibrary.org. Currently, we have nearly a hundred photos available for browsing on our web site at http://www.nashualibrary.org/HistoricalPhotos/index.htm.