Digital reproductions of approximately 13,500 photographs from the collection of local historian Wesley E. Pippenger were recently entrusted to the Essex History Museum to be preserved.

“This addition to the museum and to the community is invaluable and we thank Wes for entrusting us with his detailed and extensive collection,” said Essex County Museum and Historical Society president Barbara Sethmann.

Pippenger arrived in the area in 2007 and has collected photographs that document the people and places of Essex County and the surrounding region. He said the whole process started when Cathy Cleaton, late owner of the Rappahannock Times, endorsed the project and donated a “truckload” of photographs and negatives that had accumulated in the newspaper’s archives since 1970.

The photographs are now available for research and review at the museum at 218 South Water Lane in Tappa-hannock.
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