The Garden Club of Old Greenwich Collection

The Garden Club of Old Greenwich Collection includes a variety of historical material dating back to the Club’s beginning in 1924. Record types include constitutions and by-laws, as well as meeting minutes from general club, board, executive, and other committees, appear here. The minutes are by far the most consistent chronologically within the Collection and run from 1931 to 2010. Other administrative records include financial notebooks and registers, membership records and lists, correspondence, and yearbooks. Of particular interest is a special grouping of Helen Binney Kitchel’s journals from 1930-1967. Also of interest is a trophy for "The Most Successful Garden Club" presented in 1930 to The Garden Club of Sound Beach, which was the original name of the The Garden Club of Old Greenwich until 1931.

There is a large volume of records documenting activities including the various garden projects, walking tours, event programs, awards, and flower shows or exhibitions. A variety of scrapbooks, created by members, help document the Club’s early history from 1929 to 1981. Some contain early organization minutes, photographs and press. There are extensive newspaper clippings and press releases from 1970’s through the 1990’s.

Finally, there are five boxes of photographs and albums dating from 1962 to 2008. Photographs are both in color and black & white prints, some are matted, some Polaroid.