Two of Mystic’s popular sources for news and events in town have joined forces to produce “Images of Modern America: Mystic,” a photography book capturing the heart of the town from the 1950s to today.

Meredith Fuller, who moved to Mystic with her husband Kent in 2010, said they were approached last year by Arcadia Publishing to do a photo book after seeing their community website “This Is Mystic.” She then reached out to local author Lisa Saunders, who has a monthly Mystic newsletter, to join the project.

“We wanted to tell the whole story of Mystic, not just everybody standing in front of Mystic Seaport,” Saunders said.

The book, which came out July 4, features 164 images from more than 80 photographers, but Fuller said community members showed the team thousands of photos. In addition to social media, the website and community presentations, word of mouth was the primary way people found out about the project, and she said that if someone didn’t have a photo for the book, chances were good that they knew someone who might.

“It was really fun to get to know the community and get personal with them,” she said.

Saunders said she would talk to people about the project while out walking her dog, Doolittle. She joked that she would ask people whether she could go digging in their closets to look for old photos, and she held a scanning party at her house.

She said it was a challenge getting photos from people that met the publisher’s requirements, including resolution, color and attribution. The photos also had to be recognizable as in Mystic, such as on Main Street, at the marina or in the river.

Fuller said the project uncovered a side of Mystic that not many people today know about, a Mystic that was a tight-knit working-class community.

“It was a different Mystic, it wasn’t tourism-driven,” she said. “People really enjoyed talking to me about what Mystic was like back then.”

Saunders said she learned a lot of Mystic history through meeting with locals and talking about their photos. Many images captured Bee Bee Dairy, Higgins’ Pharmacy and other local businesses that no longer exist.

Through sharing their photos, Fuller said longtime residents recalled events such as the 1960 “Great Mystic Fire,” which destroyed nine homes, six offices and Mystic’s only movie theater at the time. The book also recognized important figures in the Mystic community such as Maggie Jones, executive director of the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, the late Florence “Flo” Klewin, who owned Kitchen Little, and the late Roger Quesnel, who ran the Mystic Community Center.

“We hope that people can share the memories and see the different side of Mystic,” she said.

A book signing and presentation will be held 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday at Coogan Farm, 162 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic.

a.hutchinson@theday.com