Please Join us for the Next
CHESTER FIRST FRIDAY NIGHT ART STROLL
November 7th, 2025, 5 - 8 pm.
Most shops, restaurants and galleries will be open late for the autumn evening.

Leif Nilsson Spring Street Studio & Gallery
One Spring Street (860) 526-2077 www.nilssonstudio.com


Please join us for an interesting and engaging Book Signing and reading of Candid New York: The Pioneering
Photography of George Bradford Brainerd By Erik Hesselberg Author of: Night Boat to New York while enjoying
some of the oldest and newest paintings of my home and travels in the gallery for a happy hour or two with
interludes of live traditional and original Irish, Scottish and American fiddle tunes by the author and Paddy Whack.
Photo by Matthew Male


CAT# 3944
Tansy and Clover Garden
oil 36 x 30 inches
Leif Nilsson summer 2025 ©


Candid New York: The Pioneering Photography of George Bradford Brainerd
By Erik Hesselberg Author of: Night Boat to New York.

The camera king George Eastman has been called “the father of the snapshot,” bringing photography to the
masses with his cheap, easy-to-use Kodak and Brownie cameras, introduced to the world in 1888 and 1900,
respectively. But years before Eastman’s Kodak No. 1 was even an idea, a Haddam-Connecticut-born inventor
had devised ingenious hand-held cameras with more sensitive film emulsions to freeze action that had
previously been a blur. Already in 1875, George Bradford Brainerd, a civil engineer with the Brooklyn water
department, was using his new “instantaneous” cameras to capture not only Gilded Age glamor, but also the
city’s gritty street life— traveling musicians, street peddlers, artisans, newsboys, burly dock workers, and even
beggars—laying the groundwork for photojournalists like Jacob Riis, Louis Hine, and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Yet, despite leaving behind some 2,000 glass negatives, George Brainerd, a true pioneer of 19th century
photography, today is virtually unknown.
The author of Night Boat to New York; Steamboats on the Connecticut 1815-1931, Erik Hesselberg has been writing
about the Connecticut River for 30 years. Starting out as beat reporter for the Middletown Press, he rose to
become Executive Editor of the Shore Line Newspaper Group in Guilford CT, where he oversaw weekly
newspapers and magazines from Old Lyme to Stratford. Erik was a past President of the Middlesex County
Historical Society, and developed the awarding-winning exhibit, “A Vanished Port,” on Middletown’s forgotten
connection to the slave trade. He lectures widely on Connecticut history and has taught courses at Wesleyan
University’s Wasch Center for Retired Faculty. Candid New York: The Pioneering Photography of George Bradford
Brainerd is Erik’s second book. He lives on the Connecticut River in Haddam, CT.


Little House Brewing Co.
First Friday 11/7 || 6:30-8:30 PM
Live Music: Long Tide
Live Music: Long Tide
EARLY AMERICAN & BRITISH BALLADS, SEA CHANTYS, & OTHER TRADITIONAL MUSIC
16 Main St, Chester, CT
www.littlehousebrewing.com/events
860-322-4153


Montgomery & Taggert Bookshop
26 Water Street, montgomeryandtaggert.com