What happens when you give a new curator the keys to more than 300 years of Granby’s history?
For Harrison Valentin, you start opening doors, digging into collections and discovering stories just waiting to be told.
A Granby native and the new curator of the Salmon Brook Historical Society, Valentin is bringing fresh eyes and new ideas to a collection filled with artwork, photographs, documents, everyday objects and unexpected treasures that tell the story of the people who came before us. And she wants the community to experience more of it.
Valentin’s fascination with art began as a child growing up in Granby. She later studied fine art at Temple University, where art history and curation introduced her to another side of art: discovering and interpreting the stories behind it. Work at the Demuth Museum and as a conservation framer at Lancaster Galleries strengthened her interest in how museums can bring those stories to life. In 2025, that journey brought her back to Granby.
Valentin began volunteering at SBHS, helping former curator Martha Miller and painting conservator David Kimball document more than 250 works by Granby artist Aaron Draper Shattuck. Studying Shattuck’s work created an unexpected connection between Valentin and the history of her own hometown. This spring, she became the society’s curator.
What’s hiding in the collection? Plenty.
One of Valentin’s favorites is certainly a conversation starter: an elaborate mourning wreath painstakingly crafted from human hair, a once-popular way of remembering loved ones. She calls it “hauntingly beautiful.” But it’s the story behind objects like this that fascinates her. Why was it made? Who made it? Who treasured it? What can it tell us about life in Granby generations ago? Those are questions Valentin wants the society to explore and share.
There’s plenty of detective work happening already. Collections are being inventoried, materials are being organized and forgotten pieces of history are resurfacing. An archival intern is currently working alongside Assistant Archivist Sue Olivera to inventory the Wilcox House, uncovering what Valentin calls a “treasure trove” of historical material.
Valentin hopes to create searchable finding aids, expand programs and outreach and develop new exhibitions in the newly renovated Preservation Barn. Her vision is to make more of SBHS’s remarkable collection accessible, relevant and fun to discover.
Visitors can join in this September. Bring a mysterious family heirloom, antique or curious thrift-store find to the Appraisal Fair on Sept. 20. Then, on Sept. 27, step into an earlier artistic tradition and have your silhouette drawn as a keepsake.
For Valentin, history shouldn’t simply sit quietly behind glass. It should make us curious. It should make us ask questions. And sometimes it should make us say, “I can’t believe that’s in Granby!” That’s exactly the reaction she hopes more people will have when they walk through the doors of the Salmon Brook Historical Society.
Her wish for every visitor? “I hope they leave imbued with a sense of connection to generations of past, present and future.”
What will you discover at Salmon Brook? Find out at salmonbrookhistoricalsociety.com