Get a glimpse of Bristol’s past and meet some of the more fascinating Bristol residents in the town’s history during an exhibit at First Congregational Church this weekend.

The church on High Street is scheduled to host the “entertaining” exhibit this Friday and Sunday, Sept. 16 and 18, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the church Sunday School. Visitors will have a chance to get acquainted with some of the more interesting Bristol residents of the last two centuries.

There’s Mary Borden Gladding, a woman who pledged to educate poor girls of Bristol, opened a school in her Hope Street home, and went on to found the Sunday School in the basement of a house in 1816. (The house is now located at the corner of Bradford and Central Streets). 

Through vivid color portraits painted by Cephas Thompson, visitors will meet the young Charlotte DeWolf and her sister, Maria DeWolf Rogers, who gave funds to build the church’s DeWolf Room. (Maria also funded the Rogers Free Library.)

Pictures, articles and personal artifacts will describe the story of Miss Abby Munro, who taught public school in Bristol (including at the School for "Colored Children" on Wood Street) and went on to become principal at the Laing School for freed slaves in South Carolina in 1870. 

There's also the story of two young church members who perished in World War II. 

One of the more colorful characters was Bristol's Alice Bell Morgan, who taught free classes in finance for women, and in the 1950s won a lot of money on the TV game show, “$64,000 Question,” donating a sum to the church to start a scholarship fund that exists today. 

The centerpiece of the exhibit is a 20-minute film shot in the 1950s to 1961, showing varied events at the church, including Easter Sunday, a bazaar and a fashion show featuring men dressed in drag. Many of the people in the film are unidentified. Church leaders are hoping visitors will help identify some them and help tell what they were doing. If your family attended First Congregational during that time period, you very likely will see them.

The exhibit will be open in the First Congregational Church’s DeWolf Room at 300 High St. on Friday, Sept. 16, 6-8 p.m., and again on Sunday Sept. 18, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. It's free and open to all, and refreshments will be served.  

There will also be free reprints of the informative Centennial celebration booklet from 1919, available while they last. There will be a scavenger hunt for children, who can also enjoy seeing things they may have never seen before — like a hand-held stereopticon with a 3D image of the church in the 1800s that visitors will be invited to pick up and try.  

Families may also enjoy seeing the church’s history superimposed upon world history — facts like Abraham Lincoln was a boy of 7 when the Sunday School was started, and that Napoleon graduated from military school the year that Bristol’s 4th of July exercises began.

For more information on this unique glimpse into Bristol’s history, contact Dyan Vaughan, co-chair of the Historical Properties Committee at 401-297-7792.