Welcome to the New London County Historical Society

The New London County Historical Society was established in 1870 and purchased the Shaw Mansion in 1907. The Shaw Mansion was built in 1756 and serves as the Society’s headquarters and houses its vast collection of material culture artifacts and archives. NLCHS provides tours of our period decorated rooms and permanent exhibits to visitors while assisting researchers in our Research and Genealogy Library. Its climate controlled vault stores documents from the eighteenth century including the Joshua Hempsted Diary.

11 Blinman Street | New London, CT 06320
(860) 443-1209 | Info@nlchs.org

Tours: Thursdays 12-4 p.m., or by appointment
*Last tour given at 3:15 p.m.

Research is by Appointment only, Wednesday-Friday

On Saturday June 8th from 10:00am– 1:00pm, NLCHS will offer free tours of the Shaw Mansion in honor of CT Open House Day. At 2:00pm, we’ll host a lecture titled: Local Connections: Finding the H.M.S. Resolute. The lecture is free and open to the public.

NLCHS is thrilled to partner with The Salvation Army and the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern, CT to host a fun and exciting summer camp for kids at the Shaw Mansion.

Campers will work together to create an exhibit which will be on display at the Shaw Mansion. The campers will select artifacts, research, and write exhibit labels, curate the objects, and install the exhibit over the course of the program. The goal of the summer camp is to engage students in a project, which connects them to the history of their community.

How can you help?

Please help us by sponsoring summer camp for children from low income families. Your $125.00 tax deductible donation will go towards sponsoring a week of camp for a child and provide campers with supplies.

 Click here if you wish to sponsor a child in our program for a week.  

Membership in the New London County Historical Society, Inc. helps to support the work of the Society in preserving New London County’s history for future generations to study and enjoy.

NLCHS has a variety of internship and volunteer opportunities available! We have unpaid internship opportunities in collections, research, marketing, and program development.

We’re looking for volunteers who are interested in being docents and researchers! Volunteering or interning with NLCHS is a great way for the individual to learn more about the history and life of New London, and the county.