Head to Digital Commonwealth—a statewide consortium that provides online access to cultural heritage materials—to explore all of the photos from Watertown’s history that the library has digitized: 1,500 and counting! Browse using the themed collections, or filter photographs by date using the slider on the left side of this listing.
For information on using Watertown Free Public Library photographs from Digital Commonwealth, please see this form.
Of special interest are photographs taken by Walter C. Woodman (1903-1979), a consulting mechanical engineer who lived in Watertown. He was very interested in the iron industry of New England and was instrumental in working with AISI to restore the Saugus Iron Works and having it designated a national historic mechanical engineering landmark in 1975. He was also an avid photographer with an eye for natural spaces.
Project SAVE is a photographic archive of the global Armenian experience, based in Watertown.
The Library of Congress has digital collections relating to Watertown, including photographs of Watertown Arsenal and the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Armenian School.
Pleasant Street buildings from across the Charles, 1874.
Watertown High School basketball team.
First Baptist Church and parsonage (now condos).
Electron spectroscopy system at the Arsenal, 1975.
Edmund Fowle House, built 1772.
Thomas Cullen, 1917.
Damage from a 1921 ice storm, Belmont and Avon streets.
Grave marker for Samuel Hastings (1723), Arlington Street Cemetery.
Kelly's Hotel and D.J. Mahoney harness shop, Watertown Square, circa 1916.