Historian and photographer Emily Fuller Drew is most remembered for the enormous amount of work she contributed to preserving the history of the town of Kingston, Massachusetts. Leaving an unsurpassed collection of more than 700 lanternslides, she photographed existing images that were decaying to preserve the informational content. Emily also photographed a variety of houses, buildings, events, and people of Kingston. Kingston history was a passion for Emily and she recorded it not only visually, but also in her numerous unpublished essays and notes. She gave frequent talks on behalf of the historical committee of the Jones River Village Club, was an important part of the process to obtain and restore the Bradford House and an author in her own right, publishing in 1926 “A History of Her Industries.”

Emily was born in 1881 in Kingston, the only daughter of Harriet Holmes and Charles H. Drew. She graduated from Kingston High School and went on to further her education graduating from Smith College. Emily worked as a teacher for Kingston High and for the high school in Essex, New Hampshire. Though she had the education and knowledge to teach, feeling that she couldn’t connect to the students, she soon gave up her teaching career.

Emily’s next career move was to become the bookkeeper for the C. Drew and Company, the family business, famous throughout the country for its fine quality tools. From this point on she remained in Kingston for the remainder of her life. Her love of history – and there is much of it in Kingston – drove her passion for recording and writing Kingston history. Emily also well known for her gardening skills, and often grew enough to supply her neighbors with the surplus. She was the driving force behind the purchase of the Major John Bradford House, initially using her own money for the purchase and later being reimbursed by the Jones River Village Club. Without her constant efforts much of Kingston history would today be forever lost.