A Museum, Library, & Exhibit Gallery
The Old Mystic History Center (formerly the Indian and Colonial Research Center) is a non-profit organization founded in 1965 to preserve the historical research of Eva Lutz Butler.
She was a woman who was passionate about history at a time when a woman's place was NOT leading archaeological digs, conducting anthropological interviews, or writing academic articles.
Are you passionate about history too? Our special research collections will help you find your roots and learn about your history.
In addition, we have accurate information for academic researchers, educators, archaeologists, students, and others to help you add to your story. We are a museum, library, and exhibit gallery located in the historic 1856 Mystic Bank building on Route 27 in Old Mystic, Connecticut.
57th Annual Meeting
The Old Mystic History Center Board of Directors held its 57th Annual Membership Meeting and Luncheon at The Steak Loft in Mystic, Connecticut, on November 9, 2024. Our speaker, Damien Cregaeu, a scholar of the American Revolutionary era, presented on the life of Faith Trumbull. The meeting was well attended.
The Board would like to thank the Center's volunteers for their dedication to preserving the past and making its collections available to the public.
The Annual Secretary’s Report for 2024 can be found here.
Teaching Wampum at Stoneridge
Recently, Sharon Maynard, President of the Old Mystic History Center, spoke to thirty residents of Stoneridge Senior Living community about wampum.
After presenting a short film featuring Allen Hazard (Narragansett) crafting wampum from quahog shells, Sharon explained its significance to Native peoples, noting that the beads were traditionally used for spiritual, diplomatic, and ceremonial purposes. She also highlighted how European traders and colonists later transformed wampum into a form of currency. In fact, wampum beads became the first legal currency of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Sharon also shared insights from Eva Butler’s notebooks about the history and cultural importance of wampum.
· It was sometimes used to seal a marriage proposal or as an addition to a “bride price”, (known at the time as ‘wife buying’).
· In 1636, John Winthrop was paying the indigenous inhabitants to produce wampum for his use.
· At one point, the colonists devised ways of counterfeiting wampum with such items as bone, stone, glass and wood. In Canada and Vermont, the French were making wampum out of porcelain only to be rejected by their native trading partners as worthless.
· In the 1600’s ministers complained that their parishioners were dropping broken and counterfeit wampum in the collection plate. This prompted the New Haven clergy to pass laws prohibiting this practice.
Continuing the Legacy
For more than thirty years, members of the Indian & Colonial Research Center's Board of Directors have discussed updating the identity of the Center.
In January 2020, after a two-year deliberative process, the Board made the decision to rebrand the “Indian & Colonial Research Center” with the “Old Mystic History Center” to reflect the growth in our collections. Over the past 50 years, our archival collection has expanded to include many fine manuscripts, publications, photographs, and physical objects connected to the rich and varied history of our area.
While Indigenous and colonial materials are still a large part of our collection’s strengths, our responsibility as the governing board is to care for and promote all the items under our stewardship. We need our research center to maintain relevance, visibility, and viability in the changing world of the 21st Century. The change in our name attempts to address these issues in a realistic community-centered way.
