The Lighthouse Museum will be open with free admission for voting Thursday through Sunday 10am to 2pm, April 16th to the 26th.
The theme for 2026 is “America the Beautiful”. We encourage photographers to reflect on what makes America beautiful. Is it the people? The landscape? Something else? How does Stonington reflect that beauty? Rollie McKenna was best known for her portrait photography, but she started her career as an architectural photographer, traveling the world to document historic and modern exteriors. Within the United States she captured life in New York, the deep South, New Mexico, Florida and so much in between. Despite her long and varied travels, her images of Stonington are some of our most requested materials in the archives of Historic Stonington. In order to ensure we are documenting the town to the best of our ability for future generations, submissions must be a photograph taken in Stonington within the last five years.
Photographs must be digitally submitted to Library Director, Chelsea Mitchell before April 1, 2026 to be exhibited in the show. Please send the image file to cmitchell@historicstonington.org. Images should be as high resolution as possible. Submitted photographs will be printed at no expense to the participants thanks to the generous sponsorship of ABC Photo Lab in Mystic. Participants are also encouraged to include a brief statement about how their photograph relates to the theme.
Prizes will be awarded to the three photographs that receive the most community votes, and will be displayed at the Lighthouse Museum for the 2026 season.