Memorial Day Northfield
Glimpses of Our Past
Painted from an old sepia-toned family photograph, “Memorial Day Northfield” preserves a glimpse of an early Memorial Day observance in Northfield, Connecticut. The young girls pictured were students at the community's one-room schoolhouse, located at the top of the hill, and the procession took place along what is now Main Street.
A Northfield historian helped identify the occasion captured in the original photograph as a Memorial Day parade. Dressed in white and carrying American flags, the schoolgirls made their way along a country road that would have looked very different from the Main Street familiar to Northfield residents today.
Among the girls is one member of my own family. At the far left, at the end of the procession, is Helen Swanson Borgeson, my grandmother's sister. Painting the scene from the old family photograph gave me an opportunity not only to preserve a glimpse of Helen's childhood, but also to bring back to life a small moment in the history of the community where she grew up.