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).
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.