This collection of photographs includes studio portraits of the Wilcox family, extended family and neighbors, as well as tintypes and photos, some dating to circa 1900 and earlier.

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Many of the activities and scenes displayed in the Wilcox Family collection center around Nut Plains, where Edgar Wilcox, Sr. served as caretaker (1921-1947) on the celebrated Foote Farm (829 Goose Lane), which is now a gateway or access point across Foote’s Bridge to the 500+ acre East River Preserve, formerly the Goss property.

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When Edgar Wilcox was hired as a caretaker, he moved his family to the Foote Farm, living variously in the Foote House or in the Joel Evarts House at 789 Goose Lane.

During this time, his Aunt Charlotte Foote’s (Mrs. Andrew Ward Foote or “Lottie”) son, Ward Foote, who was a manufacturer in Cleveland, Ohio, passed his summers at the Foote Farm, but was unable to pursue active farming; hence, the necessity of a hired caretaker. Ward died in 1925. Ward’s daughter, Miss Katherine Foote married Dean Holden from Vermont and it was the Holdens who last lived in and owned the celebrated Foote Farm.

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Edgar Wilcox, Sr. reminisced that “back in 1921, I plowed at Mr. Foote’s one half a day with a pair of oxen and then another half with horses. I plowed just as much with the oxen as with the horses. The oxen were trained: ‘ha’ was left and “gee” was right. I didn’t have to touch the lines when we were loading hay.”

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It is noted that several portraits of Almon O. Wilcox (1808-1874) appear in this collection, including, of course, portraits of Almon’s children, grandchildren, etc.

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Three cousins - Laura Dudley Page (Vermont), Lewis Scranton (Killingworth, Ct), and Allan Wilcox (Milford, Ct) came together and donated four generations of family photographs for safekeeping in the Keeping Society.