Last Saturday I attended a behind-the-scenes tour of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worcester along with some of my museum work associates. I’ve wanted to check the place out for years, so when I saw that History Camp was hosting this tour, I didn’t hesitate to sign up. Our tour was given by Jim Moran, AAS director of programs and outreach (left), who answered all our questions (but sheepishly admitted he didn’t know how to turn on the lights since tours aren't usually given on the weekend when AAS is closed.)

Founded in 1812 by Revolutionary War patriot and printer Isaiah Thomas, the AAS is both a learned society of 1,100 members and one of the largest independent research libraries in the country. They hold about 4 million items in Antiquarian Hall , including the first item printed in America in 1640, and, according to Jim, two-thirds of all material printed in this country before 1820. The bulk of their holdings go to 1876 (with some collections into the early 1900s), and all the pre-1820 items have been digitized. Wow.

Jim showed us the printing press on which Isaiah Thomas worked as a boy as an indentured servant, and he held aloft a facsimile of the Massachusetts Spy, a Patriot newspaper published by Thomas during the Revolution (see pics below).

What a fabulous place to do research, with wide empty tables, book cradles and the world of early American print at your fingertips. (I fantasized after leaving of taking an intellectual retreat this summer by renting a room across the street at WPI, and spending my days at AAS, researching local history...) I was also coveting their reading tables and miles of storage shelves (their website says 20 miles?!) – my dream for Hatfield’s Historical Museum includes smaller versions of both.

Tours similar to the one I took happen Wednesdays at 3pm – also for FREE (though donations are encouraged). Reservations are not needed, but they require advance notice if your group is more than 10. Or, you can read and meet their requirements for doing research there, any day of the week, also for free.

Want to search the online catalog to see what might interest you? Check it out:
http://catalog.mwa.org

My quick search for Hatfield references turned up an early history of Hatfield written in the 1860s, plus some interesting notes: Justus Forward (1730-1814) taught at Hatfield Academy (on Hatfield’s Main St.), likely from 1754 to 1756. Eliza Ann (Washburn) Moen (1826-1853) wrote to her parents about boarding school life in Hatfield in the 1830s or ’40s. (Since Smith Academy wasn’t started until 1872, and Hatfield Academy operated much earlier – in the 1750s-1760s – I wonder what school it was she attended? Then there was a Hatfield meeting of Hampshire County house joiners and cabinetmakers in March 1796, at which time they set prices for work. I must see all of these!

For more detail, here’s another blog post about our tour from a fellow participant, genealogist Beth Finch McCarthy.

Oh, and the headline? It was one of the questions on the AAS FAQ page -- as some people apparently get them mixed up with an aquarium! Too funny.

You might have read about the grants we received last summer from Mass Humanities and Mass. SHRAB to rehouse and inventory a large collection of business records from Hatfield’s Porter McLeod machine shop (formerly the Porter Machine Works) from the late 1800s to the 1920s, and how it all ended up in clean, tan, acid-free boxes with neat labels and an electronic Finding Aid. But how did we get from point A to point B?

Here’s a photo slideshow to give you an idea of all the people and stages required to make it happen, most of them behind the scenes before the official work of the grant had even begun. And just so you know, that is usually the case. (It’s like when you spot a mouse in your basement -- if you see one, there are usually a lot more scurrying about out of the limelight).

If you'd like to learn more about the Collection, or how it came to us, check out this article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette from Dec. 11,  or this one, from Dec. 26, 2016. And we're not stopping there. This spring, the Hatfield Historical Society will apply to Mass Humanities for a Scholar in Residence grant to bring Prof. Robert Forrant to Hatfield to delve into the collection and make sense of it for us, as well as to put it in context of the greater precision manufacturing movement that was taking place in other cities and towns in the Connecticut River Valley.

Guest post by Cher Nicholas, board member of the Hatfield Historical Society, and member of the Association for Gravestone Studies Western New England Chapter. If you missed this fascinating event, we hope to give you a taste here. My apologies for taking so long to get this posted!

On Thursday, May 12, 2016, the Hatfield Historical Society held their annual meeting at the Hatfield American Legion on Elm Street in Hatfield.  The guest speaker for this meeting was Jonathan Appell, a gravestone conservator and a Trustee of the Association of Gravestones Studies. Jonathan gave members and guests an excellent presentation and a conservation update of  “The Hill” cemetery gravestones.  He also provided an extensive walking tour of our historic Hill cemetery.

This presentation was the result of Jonathan’s restoration work on the gravestones during the summer of 2015.  The Town of Hatfield, through a Community Preservation Act (CPA) grant, was able to fund repair work to many broken and damaged gravestones in the Hill cemetery.  Jonathan spent many weeks at the Hill, performing conservation work on some beautiful historic stones that had fallen into disrepair.  The Hill has many Colonial and Victorian Era stones and is the oldest cemetery in town.  The oldest gravestone in the cemetery dates to 1680 (one of the oldest gravestones is pictured here).

Jonathan started his discussion with a 30-minute walking tour of the Hill graveyard.  He described the conservation work he performed on more than 70 stones.  He showed the group examples of repaired fractured stones (see image below) and described his process for resetting sunken and leaning stones to their proper height.  During the walking tour, he pointed to the many different material types used for gravestones at different times, including marble, brownstone, slate and granite.  We also have a gravestone made out of schist. 

During the walking tour, the group learned many interesting facts about gravestones and cemeteries.  For example, the Hill is not officially a ”cemetery” -- it is a graveyard, and Jonathan explained the difference. A cemetery is a plot of land established by the town or city that is dedicated for burials.  Families and individuals can preselect lots or family lots for future use.  A graveyard, however, is land in which burials took place, but no pre-lot planning occurred.  We can see how that occurred in the Hill graveyard where burials and makers of very different periods are intermixed.

After the cemetery tour, the group returned to the Hatfield American Legion building to hear the rest of Jonathan’s presentation and view his slides. He showed us numerous pictures of his conservation and restoration work on the Hill stones.  In addition to the conservation work, he also cleaned many discolored stones.  The before and after photographs of these stones made it very apparent how discolored the stones were before this process.

Jonathan also showed examples of his restoration work in cemeteries across the country.  He explained how he goes about the work to repair the stones and the professional conservation standards he follows.  It was interesting to hear that not all grave markers are made from stone.  He showed examples of old wooden markers, in the western part of the country, that are still standing and readable after close to 100 years.  Another interesting gravestone material he talked about was soapstone. Yes, soapstone!  Jonathan said soapstone is actually a very durable material for a grave marker since it is impervious to acids or other environmental situations, like snow, heat, or cold.  On the negative side, however, it is soft and can be easily scratched.

Jonathan also showed us examples of marble “sugar” -- which is what it’s called when marble deteriorates due to weather conditions like snow, acid rain, and wind.  Over time, the surface of the marble can turn into a fine white dust that resembles sugar.  This condition tends to occur in the colder and wetter parts of the country (like New England) and not in the dry southern states.

One point Jonathan stressed to the group, is that even if you see gravestones that are broken, you should not remove broken pieces from the cemetery.  He said many pieces of gravestones get lost that way, and gravestone conservators can then never fully repair the stones or relocate them to their proper location.
 
The audience had many questions for Jonathan after his presentation, which he graciously answered. The Hatfield Historical Society extends their gratitude to Jonathan Appell for his quality restoration work in our oldest cemetery (OK, graveyard) and  for his excellent walking tour and presentation.

Cher Nicholas is also a former member of the Hatfield Cemetery Commission, and one of the several volunteers who has taken on mapping Hatfield cemeteries (she’s mapped the Bradstreet and the West Brook cemeteries). She has also just finished her PhD in Engineering at UMass Amherst, so we hope Dr. Nicholas will again find time to indulge her love of cemeteries and perhaps integrate her photos with her cemetery maps!

Last week was a busy – and somewhat momentous – week at the museum. Thanks to some generous donations to the Hatfield Historical Society by the Zahn Family Foundation and others, we were able to get some much-needed electrical upgrades. These included the following:

• Energy-efficient LED console light fixtures to replace our 4 oldest T12 fluorescent tube fixtures (pictured above, most of which had broken fittings because the bulbs are so darned hard to change!). Not only are the displays and the work area on the east side of the museum now much better lit, but LED lights use much less energy and give off no damaging ultraviolet (UV) light, which will help keep our artifacts safer.
  
• Energy-efficient adjustable, dimmable LED track lights at top of stairs, providing directed light on the stairs, the walkway, and the two exhibit cases. You can now actually see what’s in the cases (yeah!), and we can dim the lights when the museum is not open to the public so we’re using less energy.
• A ceiling fan to push warmer air down during the cold winter months, decreasing the need to turn up the heat in the building overall, and hopefully making it more comfortable for visitors and workers. The fan will also help during the most humid times of year to keep air circulating (the lack of which can combine with humidity to fuel mold growth).
  
• A 20amp circuit so we can run the mobile AC that was donated last winter (by Mary Averill of Montague) without blowing fuses – as we did this past summer.
  

Of course, to have this work done, we needed to move all the artifacts on the east side of the museum, and much of the artifacts along the north and west perimeters, somewhere else in the museum, so it was a large Rubik’s Cube-like moving project. We took the opportunity, though, to 1) clean the artifacts and the museum, 2) photograph all the artifacts moved along with their accession numbers, and 3) pull select items off exhibit so we could better group remaining displays.
 
**If you’re wondering if the museum is still moving to the 2nd floor of the Town Hall, the answer is YES! But it won’t be for another three years (approx.winter/spring 2019), as that space will need to be upgraded after the elevator is installed. The electrical upgrades just installed on the 2nd floor of the library will either go with us, or better serve the library after we leave. Please vote YES for the elevator and other elements bringing the building up to code at this May’s Town Meeting, not only because the museum can’t move without it, but also because it’s the right thing to do. How can we justify not making the Town Hall handicapped accessible when the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 – 26 years ago – shame on us! There are a lot of seniors (visitors and volunteers) who can no longer make it upstairs to the museum, and it's just not right.
 
In my next post, I’ll tell you about a few artifacts we discovered during the temporary move that had gotten separated from their partners and some others hidden away that we didn’t even know we had. Come visit and check out the new fixtures and revamped exhibits.

By Deb Blodgett
 
If you were a child skipping rope in Hatfield in 1918, you might have recited this popular rhyme:
 
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And in-flew-enza.
 
The year 1918 marked the beginning of a worldwide epidemic that later became known as the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. While it is easy to think that this epidemic only impacted large overcrowded cities, this simply was not the case. Hatfield, like many small rural towns, was not left unscathed.  
 
Although the disease was called the “Spanish Flu,” the name was a misnomer. During World War I, the United States and several European countries censored news about the influenza epidemic, fearing additional panic or adverse impact on soldier morale. During the war, Spain remained neutral, which resulted in its newspapers freely reporting news of the influenza epidemic. This incorrectly led many to believe Spain was the origin of the disease, or more severely impacted than other countries, which was not the case. In fact, an estimated one-third of the world’s population, about 500 million, became infected and the total deaths due to influenza were tallied between 50 and 100 million people during the approximately six months of the pandemic spanning late 1918 and early 1919. About 675,000 of these deaths occurred in the United States.

In Massachusetts, it was conservatively reported that 400,000 became infected between September and December of 1918. As many physicians and nurses were enlisted in the military, the number of available medical professionals available to battle this illness was reduced. In addition, hospital facilities throughout the state were sorely unprepared to accommodate the sizable number of cases, prompting the establishment of about 50 emergency hospitals throughout the state. The most dramatic impact occurred in October 1918 with an average of 418 deaths occurring per day. The total Massachusetts deaths attributable to influenza in 1918 totaled 13,783. However, an additional 4,643 deaths listed influenza as a secondary cause of death, bringing the total impact of influenza-related deaths to 18,426.  In 1919, there were 2,872 deaths attributable to influenza. The expense to the Massachusetts government in fighting the influenza outbreak amounted to about $100,000 in 1918. (That would be about $1.6 million in today’s dollars.)

Beginning in 1884, Massachusetts law required town board of health officials to keep a record of residents infected with diseases deemed dangerous to public health. Bound books were provided by the state printing office to each town for this purpose so as to provide consistency in data reporting. These log books included spaces to record the disease contracted, as well as the impacted individual’s name, age, occupation, address, reporting individual, and disposition. However, before September 1918, influenza was not one of the reportable diseases as it was not considered dangerous to public health before the 1918 strain.

Fortunately, the Record of Dangerous Diseases, Town of Hatfield, still exists, thus allowing us to examine how the town was impacted by the epidemic. Hatfield’s first reported case of influenza occurred on Oct. 8, 1918, infecting a 26-year-old male. By Dec. 31, a total of 364 residents had contracted the illness, nearly 14% of the town’s population. An additional 53 cases occurred in the first few months of 1919, with the last cases being reported on March 24, 1919. A total of 417 residents became ill during the six months of the epidemic (see below):

One of Hatfield’s two in-town physicians, Dr. Charles A. Byrne, treated 82% of the town’s infected residents with the remaining residents being treated by doctors from Northampton and other area towns. The town’s other in-town doctor, Dr. Alfred Bonneville, was away serving in World War I in the Medical Corps. While not all of the residents’ ages were reported, of those that were, the youngest patient was 9 months old and the eldest patient was 50 years old. It is likely that most infected patients were between the ages of 20 and 40, which is the typical age group that this strain of influenza affected.

Hatfield was fortunate that the majority of its impacted residents recovered.  Influenza-related deaths were low, with six deaths having occurred in 1918 (although, as discussed above, an additional five deaths may have had influenza as a contributing factor) and no deaths by influenza in 1919.

Deb Blodgett is a volunteer at the Hatfield Historical Museum. She enjoys historical and genealogical research, and her interests include the study of artifacts, industries and family life of rural 19th century New England.

*For more information about health care in Hatfield in the first half of the 20th century, check out the following post about our Mass Humanities Scholar in Residence Grant as well as a guest blog post by our summer Scholar in Residence, UMass PhD candidate Ann Robinson, and visit the Hatfield Historical Museum’s current exhibit “From House Calls to Hoaxes: The Changing Face of Health Care in Hatfield.” 

Sources:
1. Jeffery K. Taubenberger and David M. Morens, “1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics”, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12:1 (2006): 15-22.
2. Laura Stephenson Carter, “Cold Comfort,” Dartmouth Medicine, (Winter 2006): 36-57.
3. Harold D. Wilson, ed., Seventy-Seventh Annual Report on the Vital Statistics of Massachusetts…for the Year 1918 (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1920), 94, 180, 190, 199, 241.
4. Annual Report on the Vital Statistics of Massachusetts…for the Year 1919 (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1921), 99, 191.
5. The Revised Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Enacted November 21, 1901 … (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1902), Chapter 75, Section 51, 666.
6. Fourth Annual Report of the State Department of Health of Massachusetts (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1919), 3-6.
7. Record of Diseases Dangerous to Public Health, Town of Hatfield, 1915-1944, original manuscript, Hatfield, Massachusetts.

 It was three 5th and 6th grade girls and our town clerk who made my day last Tuesday, helping to answer the question: Why do we save items from our town’s history, anyway? Why not just send folks to the Internet, where they can read up on wars, migrations and how things used to be?

These girls often pop upstairs after school and ask if the museum is open – or if there are any jobs for them to do. I tell them, well, the museum is officially closed so we can work – with open boxes filling the tables and some of the aisles – but that they’re welcome to look around if they’re careful. They check out the WWII cigar thank you letters and the schoolchildren letters sent in 1911 to a sick classmate (Johnnie Winters). Then one of the girls (Grace, Rose or Lily) glances around the WWII exhibit case and asks if the blood-stained Bible is still on display. I tell her no, since the Civil War exhibit has been replaced, but, I could show it to them all the same.

I have to reach up high to get it, and carefully bring it down. Over at a clear table I show them the exquisite custom blue box made for the pocket 1863 New Testament by paper conservator and bookbinder Daniel Gehnrich. The box and repairs on the book were funded by the town’s Community Preservation Act. Prior to that, it had been wrapped in saran wrap, resting on a wire plate holder. I show them how the box doubles as a display stand so we don’t have to handle it, and where the supposed bullet hole used to be, amidst the blood-stained pages.

Together, we wonder how the blood got there, and what happened to the soldier. They read the label and see it was donated by a Dr. C.S. Hurlburt of Springfield, a dentist, who married Mary Wait Allis of Hatfield.

Sitting next to me on the table is a book I had gotten from the town clerk (Lydia Szych) earlier in the day, to add some numbers to our recently completed Mass Humanities-funded medical history grant, and it occurs to me these curious-minded girls might find the book as interesting as I did. I have them read me the title on the spine: Record of Dangerous Diseases, Town of Hatfield.

The book records all of the town’s infectious diseases between 1915 and 1944, including an outbreak of measles in 1918 (53 cases!) among schoolchildren and several hundred case of influenza in 1918-1919, resulting in at least 11 deaths. Coincidentally, Rose had just been looking at a book in the library downstairs that talked about the very same flu epidemic – and here was the Hatfield record of cases in our town.

We note that a girl of 7 who lived on Bridge St. contracted mumps on the same day, Nov. 17, one hundred years earlier. Likewise, Grace notes that someone contracted influenza on her birthday in October, nearly 100 years ago. They all make sad noises upon seeing that two of the children who contracted whooping cough in  Dec. 1915 and Jan. 1916 – a 1 year-old and a 2-1/2-mo.-old. – died (see center image above).

One of the girls’ phones rings, and it is getting late, so I tell them to come back another day. I hear them say to each other going down the stairs,“that was fun…” And I think, yes, that was fun, and it reminds me why we are here.

Between 1883 and 1914, the leading cause of death in Hatfield, MA, was – ? Any guesses?

Pneumonia -- 90 cases. The biggest cause of accidental death was drowning – at least some of which occurred while washing up in the river. Those who couldn’t pay their doctor bills to Dr. Charles A. Byrne – one of Hatfield’s two in-town physicians – sometimes paid in onions, or potatoes or with their services – by painting his carriage, or doing his washing (see page from his appointment book below). Dr. Byrne saw patients seven days a week, either in their homes or in his office in the front parlor of his home at 83 Main St. (back then it was numbered 46 Main St.).

These are just a few of the findings that have come out of this summer’s research by UMass PhD student Ann Robinson, based in Cambridge, MA. Ann was our scholar in the Scholar in Residence (SIR) Grant we won last spring. The grant, co-written by UMass History Prof. Emily Redman and myself, was funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant was also made possible, in part, by the Collections Management & Preservation Grant from the Town of Hatfield’s Community Preservation Act (CPA), which allowed the museum to be open and monitored during the time in which our scholar worked. Without the CPA grant, we would have been unable to apply for or to carry out the SIR grant.

Called “Understanding Early 20th Century Medical Care in Hatfield,” the SIR grant provided funding of $2,500 to our scholar and $500 to a project director (myself), that allowed us (mostly Ann) to spend some 286 hours researching and inventorying our rich collection of documents and artifacts, primarily related to the medical practice of Hatfield doctor Dr. Charles Armstrong Byrne. Dr. Byrne came to Hatfield in 1895, fresh out of medical school, and practiced here until his son Robert took over in 1933. Ann's research included exploring Dr. Byrne's appointment books (from 1897 to 1933), his patient record envelopes, and his speeches and lecture notes.

This grant generated a 20-page report plus annotated reading list; a searchable inventory for artifacts related to early 20th century medical care in Hatfield (see description of inventory HERE and inventory link below); an expanded inventory that we will use for writing labels for the exhibit to come; and numerous spreadsheets, including 1) ranked causes of death in Hatfield (from 1883-1914), 2) causes of death by year during the same period, and 3) country of origin, occupation, and vital stats for many Hatfield patients. Within Dr. Byrne’s yearly appointment books, and in his collection of patient record slips, lies of wealth of additional information to be mined.

In addition to the two granting organizations, this project would not have been possible without the generosity and foresight of the Byrne family, who donated Dr. Charles Byrne’s lectures and speeches, and either donated or loaned many of his medical tools and medicines. Likewise, we also needed the generosity and patience of Joe Lavallee, who moved into the Byrne house at 83 Main St. approximately 40 years ago with his wife Mary Jane, and held onto numerous items from Dr. Byrne's medical practice until the Historical Museum was in a position to receive them. We thank you all!

Because of our space constraints, most of the products of the SIR grant research will be used to create an online exhibit for which we plan to apply for a Project Grant with Mass Humanities in the coming year. One product we are making public today is the searchable inventory of our early 20th century medical care collection. To check this out, click HERE, and don’t miss images related to the SIR grant below.

We also invite you to stop by the Hatfield Historical Museum at 39 Main St., where you can see our physical collection of Dr. Charles Byrne’s tools and medicines as part of our current held-over exhibit, "From House Calls to Hoaxes” – including scary dental tools, glass globe pessaries (oh my!),  castor oil, cocaine (er…toothache) drops, and more.

And if you happen to have access to any records or artifacts related to the practice of Dr. Alfred Bonneville -- the other physician practicing in Hatfield in the early 20th century -- it would greatly help us flesh out this picture of medical care during that time. We are also looking for stories or details of doctor visits through the mid -1930s with Dr. Charles Byrne, Dr. Alfred Bonneville or the Visiting Nurse (Marie Duval). Just let us know!

To read Ann Robinson's blog post on her summer of research, click HERE.

By Meguey Baker

One of the most delightful things about material culture and conservation work is the process of discovery. Every artifact is interesting for various reasons, and I love when I encounter something entirely new. I have seen a lot of different examples of decorative arts, but on my first day as the collections assistant at the Hatfield Historical Museum, I saw something I had never seen before. Curator Kathie Gow handed me a box of items to write up accession sheets for.  There were a few fans, a needlepoint piece, and what appeared to be a booklet of faded construction paper, fastened with a bow on one side.

As soon as I opened the cover, however, I knew it was something special (click on image at left). The delicate pressed ferns and flowers were still crisp and bright, the fringed edge was shining golden, and the netting ground was fully intact. The whole thing sang "Victorian fancy work!" clear as a bell.
     When I went home that afternoon, I couldn't stop thinking about the wreaths and the golden fringe and the not-quite-geometric netting that supported the pressed plants. Thankfully, we now have modern technology as well as old books of fancy work ideas and directions. To the internet I went. My first search was for “Victorian pressed flowers.” My goodness there are a lot of folks making things in the Victorian style these days. Next search: “vintage Victorian pressed ferns” That brought me to Etsy, a marketplace for new and vintage crafts, where there was a very similar construction paper doily.
     This artifact looked so much like the one I'd seen earlier in the day I felt it must be the same technique, particularly in the close-up of the not-quite-geometric netting. How exciting! And a new lead, with new search terms -- the caption mentions Jamaica, the U.K., and fundraising in the 1870s.
     My next search, “1870 pressed ferns Jamaica,” took me to the last step on this discovery quest: A PDF of a paper on Jamaican lace-bark, which has an inner bark that can be stretched and expanded to make a sturdy, flexible natural netting. The article even shows a picture of a wreath like ours and identifies the golden outer fringe as the seed hairs of French cotton, Calotropis procera – which is basically a giant milkweed. The link is absolutely clear, and there remains no doubt in my mind that what we have in Hatfield is an authentic 1870s Jamaican fern doily. This allows us to include a date on the record for this piece, and to understand more about how it may have wound up in Hatfield – these artifacts were made and sold either as souvenirs or as fundraising items to support mission work in Jamaica.

In writing this up and recreating my searches, I came across a few other interesting sites with more information on these beautiful handcrafts:

Jamaican Fern Doyleys
Fern Gully Jamaica

I wonder what discoveries my second week will bring?