Leon R. Willard the Village Photographer

A few years ago a neighbor lent me a copy of the New England Magazine March 1900 edition which contained an article about the town of New Ipswich.

Leonard Reston Willard was born in the late 1800s.  He was a house painter, a photographer and chicken farmer. He describes his multiple pursuits in an interview with the magazine.

In early 2018 I undertook the task of scanning the New Ipswich Historical Society photo collection. Leonard took many of these photographs. He photographed people, groups, events and landscapes. Raising chickens might have been his most profitable pursuit but his photography is his legacy.