See Windsor’s Tobacco History Through One Man’s Lens

WINDSOR, CT — A new Windsor Historical Society exhibit puts the people behind one of the town's defining industries in the spotlight.

"These Hands, This Leaf: Leonard Hellerman's Photographs of Windsor's Tobacco Workers" features decades of images by Windsor resident Dr. Leonard "Len" Hellerman, a retired dentist whose camera has documented the local shade-tobacco industry and its workers.

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Hellerman, now 97, began taking photographs 86 years ago. His work captures the labor behind the crop, from planting and cultivating tobacco in the fields to harvesting and drying leaves in the sheds that once dotted Windsor's landscape.

Connecticut River Valley shade tobacco, grown beneath large white cloth coverings, is used primarily as wrapper leaf for premium cigars. Tobacco has been grown in the Windsor area since the 1600s, and the crop helped shape the town's agricultural identity for generations.

Hellerman was granted access to photograph the Thrall family's workers, fields and sheds, beginning a long-running visual record of an industry that has steadily declined. In a recent interview with CT Insider, Windsor Historical Society Executive Director Carrie Taylor said the collection offers a rare archive of both the industry and the people whose work sustained it.

The exhibit is on display through the end of September at the Windsor Historical Society, 96 Palisado Ave. Museum hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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