Let there be light: Donations fund much-needed improvements

Artifacts had to be moved to the west side of the museum in preparation for new lights.

Jesse of Paciorek Electric does a great job installing and hanging our new LED lights, ceiling fan and track lighting.

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.
  

The temporary move was a good opportunity to dust and clean off cobwebs.

We also recorded accession numbers and photographed items with their numbers so they could be added to our museum database.

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.