Franklin Library's Chilson "Time Machine" Now Up and Running

Above, an image from the 1951 Franklin film by Stanley Chilson showing plantings being installed in the water trough at Clark Square.

Lifelong resident, Stanley Grant Chilson, was a graduate of Dean Academy in Franklin and Worcester Polytechnic Institute -- and he lived for photography. Still camera images he took in profusion, capturing in detail the activities of the Franklin Fire Department -- and other departments in the region. He also assembled an annual collection of film clips for each year from 1935 to 1963.  His films, preserved, and then digitized in the early 2000s, have now been made available online -- just  few clicks away -- on the Franklin Library's Internet Archive page, by Reference Librarian Vicki Earls.

You can access the collection at any time by  selecting Local History and Genealogy from the left hand menu on the Franklin Library website. From there, click on Stanley Chilson Films of Franklin online at the Internet Archive

Subjects include parades, visits by the circus, storms and storm damage, people at work, trains coming and going. construction projects, school activities and, a signature annual event, shots of worshippers departing from each of the town's churches, typically on Easter -- a clever way of catching nearly every face in town at least once a year.

Also online are films associated with the local celebration of the national bicentennial in 1976 and the town bicentennial in 1978.

You don't even need a library card!