The Picturing Our Past website was created to encourage the Williamstown, MA community to participate in the appreciation of its people and its land. This website is both a digital archive of photographs collected from current and former Williamstown/Berkshire area residents that illustrate the passage of 250 years as well as a forum for the exchange of information about historical images of the region. The images have been collected from scrapbooks and family albums, attics, basements, and shoeboxes are keys to the history of Williamstown — primary sources of visual information. Landscape images, portraits, cameos, structural photographs illuminate this collection, telling tales of the many different walks of life that have found their way into Williamstown. With these images indexed and preserved, it will be possible for them to remain vital resources for years to come.

The images are indexed by source, geographic location, and subject matter for accessibility. The copyrights of these images reside with their original owners who have given permission for their images to be displayed on this web site. Please read the following section on Rights and Uses and Technical Information for more information.

Henry W. Art

Rosenburg Professor of  Biology and Environmental Studies