‘Dear Santa …’

Verner Reed’s photographs preserve moments large and small of how New Englanders lived 60 years ago.

hen Verner Reed (1923–2006) came upon this group of children gazing into the window of a toy store along Boston’s Washington Street at Christmas in 1955, he captured, unmistakably, a little girl’s wonder and ever-hopeful yearning. He titled it Christmas Reflections, Boston, 1955, and it became one of some 26,000 prints and negatives that eventually joined Historic New England’s Verner Reed photographic collection (1950–72).

During his lifetime, Reed pushed himself to master as many creative endeavors, it seemed, as possible. He became one of the most accomplished photographic chroniclers of New England, with his shots featured in numerous newspapers and national magazines, including Life. He was also a furniture maker, a silversmith, a jewelry maker—as well as a farmer and even for a while a restaurant owner in Stowe, Vermont. But his enduring legacy remains the photos he captured as he roamed Boston’s streets and as much of off-road New England as he could find. Historic New England offers a glimpse of Reed’s special eye for detail at its website: historicnewengland.org/collections-archivesexhibitions/online-exhibitions/verner-reed

—Mel Allen

Since 1994, Historic New England has been the keeper of a collection of more than 2,000 images of New England life, mostly glass-plate negatives, amassed by Yankee founder Robb Sagendorph in the 1960s. See more shots from the collection at: historicnewengland.org