Check us out on social media
hatfield historical society
  • Home
  • Events
    • Visitors and Workers
  • Collections
    • Foxfire Reports
    • Audio Stories
  • Genealogy
  • Resources
  • Profiles
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
    • Museum Shop
  • DONATE / JOIN
    • Membership
    • Donations

Dreams take time -- and lots of effort!

1/5/2011

 
Picture
Today was a very productive work morning – this time not in the museum, but in the Town Hall. Many thanks to Historical Society members Bill Parmeter and Linda Golash for spending two-plus hours with me cleaning the eight sets of cheery orange shelves retired from the Smith Academy Library (thank you Principal Scott Goldman and Superintendent John Robert!), then hauling the individual shelves and brackets up to the 2nd floor balcony. The old balcony, from where residents used to watch basketball games and school plays in the auditorium below, is the site of the Historical Museum’s new additional storage space. While some groups of items (like extra boxes of tercentenary booklets) have been stored in Society member's barns or garages over the years due to lack of space in the museum, this will be the first additional inside storage room the museum has seen in FORTY years -- so not something to scoff at!

Many thanks also to Town Crew members William Young, James Lavallee, and Mark Hebert for doing all the heavy lifting of the shelving units, including moving them from SA. And while I’m at it, let’s not forget Historical Society Secretary Amy Hahn and Town Hall employee Cheri Hardy for help in cleaning and prepping the space, Roy Omasta for making the balcony secure, DPW Director Phil Genovese for his support and workers, and our three Selectmen (Ed Lesko, Darryl Williams and Jeff Boyle) for granting us the space in the first place. Phew! I’m tired just recounting the work.

What is shows, more than anything, is how many people (both town employees and volunteers) are necessary to make something good happen. And of course it’s not done yet. Next we have to re-assemble the shelves with their brackets, and either figure out how to lock the wheels more securely and/or add a strip of wood molding to the front of several risers so the shelves don’t travel. Then we have to pack up artifacts from the museum and move them over. But bird by bird, it will happen.

Something else we discovered today as our cleaning enterprise was splayed across the central foyer was that Town Hall is a happenin’ place! Patrons dropped off their census forms in the Town Clerk’s office, their tax bills in the tax collector’s office, visited the Building Inspector’s office downstairs, stopped in to see Town Administrator Jeff Ritter and afore-mentioned DPW Director, arrived for 11 am lunch in the Senior Center downstairs and of course stopped in to fulfill various and sundry needs with the secretaries in the front offices. If the Town Hall Renovation Plan passes in the spring and the Historical Museum gets to move into the second floor of Town Hall (occupying both the parlor and large meeting room), we will be in a great location to get lots of traffic – both with Town Hall employees and its myriad daily visitors.

The idea is that the permanent collection would be housed in the large meeting room, open when the museum is staffed, at least once a week from spring through fall as it is now (but hopefully bumped up to two or three times a week), but that the parlor would house changing exhibits in display cases so that this room could be securely open when the Town Hall is open. As Linda Golash and I walked through those rooms today, with their high ceilings and 1930s period feel, we marveled at how great the space would be to house an expanded Historical Museum. A dream for a new museum space – begun 40 years ago when the Historical Society was founded – may finally come to fruition!

    If you like this blog, subscribe!
    If you'd like to be sent a link each time a new entry is posted (which is periodically), please send an email with the subject line SUBSCRIBE to
    hatfieldhistoricalsociety
    @gmail.com

    Curator's musings...

    As the curator of a small town Historical Society museum, I wonder a great many things. Am I alone in these thoughts that come to me while driving, or exercising, or falling asleep at night? Is it unusual to be constructing displays and writing copy in one's head for an enlarged museum space that does not, as yet, exist?

    If you're wondering about the blog title, "bird by bird," see my First Post for an explanation! Click HERE to read it.

    When I'm not thinking about our museum or rehousing artifacts with my fellow museum committee members, I'm working with our exhibit committee to plan physical or virtual exhibits, and working with our board to help fundraise.

    I invite your comments and reactions.

    --Kathie Gow


    Categories

    All
    18th Century
    19th Century
    Churches & Religion
    Collections Mgt.
    Conservation/preservation
    Death & Dying
    First Post
    Genealogy
    Graveyards
    Inventory Project
    Local Historical Society Issues
    Mass Militia
    Medical Care In Hatfield
    Moving The Museum
    Old Photos
    Oral History
    Other Museums
    Polish Immigration
    Provenance
    Slavery
    Smith Academy
    Storytelling
    Technology
    Tercentenary
    Textiles
    Wars & Rebellions

    Archives

    March 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    November 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    April 2017
    February 2017
    August 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Cea.