New London County Historical Society Museum

Founded in 1870, the New London County Historical Society is the oldest historical organization in eastern Connecticut. The Shaw Mansion, located near the intersection of Bank and Tilley Streets in New London, has been our home since 1907.

During the Revolutionary War the mansion served as Connecticut’s Naval War Office. A visit here will provide a unique opportunity to learn of the role of privateering and State navys in the Revolution. Exhibits of artifacts and manuscripts from the period have the power to bring that struggle to life.

The wealthy merchant, Captain Nathaniel Shaw, began building the granite mansion in the 1750s using the labor of French refugees being dispersed from Nova Scotia, the Acadians, during the time of the French and Indian War.

The house and grounds were owned by five generations of that one family before being sold to the Historical Society in 1907 to be our headquarters. The unique combination of an undispersed family collection intimately tied to the region’s history, and an early collection of resources focused on the entire county–a county with an amazingly rich heritage linked to its maritime past–makes this truly a community treasure.