At Pequot Library, the Holiday Fundraisers Keep the Map Room Open

A single sheet in Southport's Pequot Library shows Connecticut as Amos Doolittle engraved it, titled "Connecticut From the Best Authorities." It was printed in Philadelphia in 1795 for Mathew Carey's American Atlas: Containing Twenty Maps and One Chart. It belongs to the library's Special Collections and is now on display in Lines of Liberty: Maps, Power, and the Making of America, which runs through January 9, 2027.

That date puts the map in a raw period for this town. The Town of Fairfield's history recounts July 1779: British troops under General George Garth landed near Mill River and marched over Sasco Hill to join General William Tryon, and the raid that followed burned Fairfield. In 1789 George Washington passed through and observed that "the chimneys of many burnt houses" were still standing in Norwalk and Fairfield. Six years later Doolittle's map went to press.

The map is on view for about eight more weeks. Two of the library's events between now and then are fundraisers, and the library says its book sales directly support exhibitions like this one. The holiday calendar at Pequot Library is how the map room gets paid for.

What Hangs in Lines of Liberty

The library says the show draws on its own collection of historic maps, atlases and manuscripts to trace how maps were made and used from the colonial era into the 20th century. It is built around the Revolutionary period, when maps helped European powers claim territory, guided armies over disputed ground, and gave a new nation a picture of itself. Letters and military records hang beside the rare maps and atlases, and in the library's words they show "how war was experienced on the ground right here in Connecticut."

These are the featured pieces the library names, all from Pequot Library Special Collections:

• Amos Doolittle, "Connecticut From the Best Authorities," from Mathew Carey's American Atlas, Philadelphia, 1795
• Robert Sayer, "A New and Correct Map of North America, with the West India Islands," from Thomas Jefferys's The American Atlas, London, 1778
• Samuel Dunn, "A Map of the British Empire in North America," dated 1776, from the same 1778 Jefferys atlas
• Bernard Ratzer, "Plan of the City of New York, In North America. Surveyed in the Years 1766 & 1767," shown in a facsimile from Valentine's Manual, 1854
• A map of upper Manhattan above Eighty-Sixth Street, drawn to show the Battle of Harlem Heights and lithographed for Joseph Shannon's Manual in 1868

The exhibition page also shows Sebastian Bauman's Plan of the investment of York and Gloucester, printed in Philadelphia in 1782, which is also in Special Collections.

The two companion programs bring the show outside and to younger visitors. Lines on the Landscape is a self-guided mapping walk on the Great Lawn and the nature trail. Visitors pick up a map in the Children's Library, look for landmarks, decode symbols, choose a route and then draw a map of their own. Mystery in the Maps gives visitors a Map Detective sheet and sends them through the exhibition hunting for clues in the maps, letters and documents. Both run for the whole exhibition, through January 9.

The Book Sale Pays for the Map Room

Pequot Library is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that relies on public support. According to its book sales page, every sale is free to enter, and the proceeds support the lending library, the program calendar, school outreach tours and its Special Collections exhibitions. The library says it raises about 20 percent of its annual operating budget from fundraisers such as its book sales.

The library holds four book sales a year. The summer sale is the large one, with more than 100,000 items in tents on the Great Lawn. The Black Friday/Saturday sale is smaller and stocked for gift-giving, and the library describes it this way:

"Beat the crowds after Thanksgiving, and start your holiday shopping! Browse new items and gently used materials that we've selected with gift-giving in mind."

This year the sale runs Friday, November 27, and Saturday, November 28, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. It offers more than 10,000 books and media items in "like new" and "gently used" condition, with categories including Art/Photography, Children's books, Christmas/Holiday and Cookbooks. Hundreds of CDs and DVDs are priced at $1 to $3 each. Donations can be dropped off any time of year at the shed off the library parking lot.

The Literary Luncheon raises money for the same building. Its event page says proceeds go to the library's general operating budget.

Two Fundraisers, a Party and Two Tours Before January

From the day this post publishes, the season has a set order. It begins tomorrow:

1. Friday, November 13, 11:30 a.m.: Literary Luncheon. Jean Hanff Korelitz, the New York Times best-selling author of The Plot and its new follow-up, The Sequel, talks with Susy Hayes Jones, creator and host of The Hayes' Pages Literary Salon Series. A Q&A and book signing follow, and Barrett Bookstore will sell copies. The catered lunch is served in the auditorium, and each ticket includes lunch and a glass of wine. Tickets are limited and non-refundable and are not sold at the door.
2. Saturday, November 14, 1 p.m.: Lines of Liberty exhibition tour. A guided walk through the rare materials on display. Registration is required.
3. Friday and Saturday, November 27 and 28, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Black Friday/Saturday Book Sale. Admission is free.
4. Tuesday, December 1, 2 p.m.: Out of the Vault. Special Collections staff bring selected rare materials into the Special Collections Reading Room for a close look.
5. Friday, December 4, 5 to 7 p.m.: Annual Caroling Party. The library calls this its signature winter event, with crafts, choirs, treats, horse-drawn carriage rides, a surprise visitor from the North Pole and a holiday market of local vendors.
6. Saturday, December 12, 1 p.m.: Lines of Liberty exhibition tour. This is the last tour on the show's published schedule.

The luncheon and the November 14 tour fall on back-to-back days, so the opening weekend of this stretch is a full one. The Caroling Party on December 4 is the last big event of the season, and the final scheduled tour comes eight days after it.

Fewer Open Days Than January 9 Suggests

After the December 12 tour, the show still has four weeks, but the holidays take several of those days. The library's 2026 holiday schedule lists these closings:

• Thursday, December 24, Christmas Eve
• Friday, December 25, Christmas Day
• Saturday, December 26
• Thursday, December 31, closing at 4 p.m.
• Friday, January 1, and Saturday, January 2, 2027

That leaves one open week in January before the maps come down on January 9. The library's next exhibition, Rooted in the World: Clare Leighton, Nature, and the Common Good, opens January 23, 2027.

Out-of-town holiday guests can take the train. The library says it is less than half a mile from the Southport Metro-North station.

The library's line about Connecticut applies most directly to the letters and military records, and the Doolittle map shows the same state sixteen years after the raid. All of it is in Southport for eight more weeks, and the season's first fundraiser starts tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.

At Unique and Luxury Properties, the history behind a Southport home is part of how we present it, much as these maps date the state they show. If you own a home in Southport with a story worth telling well, we would be glad to talk privately. Request a Confidential Portfolio.