Barney E. Daley (1909-2008) was a South Windsor, Connecticut native who grew up in a tobacco farming family and often unearthed arrow points and other artifacts while working the land. These objects and the people who created them sparked in Daley a lifelong interest in history. As an amateur archaeologist, Daley amassed a large collection of Native American artifacts, particularly those of the Podunk Indians of the Connecticut River Valley. Daley served in Europe during World War II and returned to South Windsor after the war. He was a historian, preservationist, and collector on various topics including local Anglo and Native American history, tobacco farming, and veterans affairs. Daley wrote and self-published books on several of these topics, God’s Acre (1984), about South Windsor’s colonial-era cemetery of the same name; 5,000 Years at Podunk (1984), about Podunk Indian artifacts found in South Windsor; and Tobacco Parish: A Collection of South Windsor’s Memories (1998).
The Barney E. Daley Collection represents Daley’s varied interests, including South Windsor Anglo and Native American History, tobacco farming, veterans’ affairs, and botany. His wife, Gladys Abbe Daley, participated in his research and created or contributed some of the materials in the collection. The bulk of the materials that Daley donated to the Wood Library are more than 5,000 archeological artifacts, including Native American projectile points, pottery shards, and tools. In addition, there is location data for almost all of the artifacts about where they were found.
The photographic collections include photos of Daley’s life in South Windsor and during World War II, slides of archaeological digs, and historical images of South Windsor, the region, and its residents, some of which came from the photo departments of local newspapers.
Personal or Family Papers, Photograph Collections
Tags: Archaeology, Genealogy, Main Street South Windsor, Maps, Native American artifacts, Tobacco farming, World War II