WOODBURY, Conn.—The Glebe House Museum & Gertrude Jekyll Garden invites the public to a special free presentation with Kate Kelley, founder of The Photo Angel Project, on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. at the Woodbury Public Library.
The program grew from a connection between Kelley and the Glebe House Museum. When Kelley contacted the museum, staff had no way of knowing they would be reunited with an object from the museum’s past—one that was not represented in its collection.
Kelley had discovered a “tile trivet,” circa 1975, at her mother’s home. The trivet was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Glebe House Museum’s 1925 opening and was originally sold at the museum as a fundraiser. Although the museum holds many commemorative objects, it did not have an example of this particular anniversary trivet.
After learning about Kelley’s personal history and her work through The Photo Angel Project, the Glebe House Museum invited her to share the project’s story with the community.
The Photo Angel Project’s mission is to reunite long-lost photographs with their relatives. Kelley has returned images to families in all 50 states and in several countries. Her work has been featured by NBC’s The Today Show, Family Tree Magazine, The Boston Globe, WCVB Channel 5 Boston’s Chronicle, Who Do You Think You Are magazine, and other media outlets.
“It all began with a pile of labeled photos of non-relatives that were mixed in with my grandparents’ old family pictures,” Kelley said. “Were they friends? Classmates? War buddies? Neighbors? I was determined to find out.”
Kelley began researching the people in the photographs through genealogy websites and soon connected with their relatives. Today, she searches antique stores for labeled photographs that can be identified and returned to family members. One recipient affectionately gave her the name “The Photo Angel.”
“The purpose of this project is to inspire others to dig out their dusty attic boxes and visit antique stores for photos with identifying information to reunite them with families,” Kelley said.
The event is sponsored by the Glebe House Museum & Gertrude Jekyll Garden. Community members are encouraged to attend, learn how photographs and family history can be preserved, and discover how they may help reunite meaningful images and objects with the people and places they belong to.
