Early Berkshire Women

Joanna Jennings will give an illustrated talk on an early Berkshire woman photographer, Carrie Smith Lorraine, on Monday, May 3, to the Stephentown Historical Society.  Because of a current renovation project at the Heritage Center, the meeting will be held at the Stephentown Town Hall, 26 Grange Hall Road, Stephentown.  It begins at 7:30 pm and is free and open to the public.  The building is handicapped accessible.  For directions, telephone 518-733-5675.
Carrie Smith Lorraine (1868-1935) was a semi-professional photographer who captured picture portraits of guests who came to stay at her family’s boarding house in Sheffield, MA, an inn business that remained in the family for three generations and nearly a century. She went on to document local architecture, domestic and pastoral scenes, portraits of families and workers, town and travel scenes, animals and agriculture, transportation and school children. She was the first woman photographer in Sheffield and possibly the Berkshires. The 1,000 glass plate negatives she left behind form a significant photographic archive for the Sheffield Historical Society.
Joanna Jennings is an award-winning visual artist who studied photography at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She became interested in local history and the decorative arts when she completed an internship at the Bidwell House Museum in Monterey, MA. She is Administrator for the Sheffield Historical Society and has served as a consultant for the New Marlboro Historical Society.