Time always passes so quickly when I’m in the museum, as if the normal rules of time don’t apply. All of a sudden, it’s 1:30 pm, the library has closed, and I have half-a-dozen small projects still begging for completion. This week we received some much-needed archival supplies – acid-free legal-size file folders for holding deeds, and acid-free bankers boxes and tissue paper for rehousing a lot of textiles and hats, as well as other things. If you'd like to help us catalog, photograph or re-pack items this coming spring and summer, please give me a call or send me an email. The trouble with storing and displaying items properly (archivally, that is), is that it takes money and a lot of  space, neither of which are in great supply. It was a day of detail-oriented tasks, including printing new labels for a deed box, a bond trunk and the clock tower pendulum.

It was also a day of general organizing and creating new file folders, as I may not be in the museum before it opens to visitors for the season on Saturday, April 2. Farm Museum Curator George Ashley will be hosting that day as I’ll be out of town.

I also played host today to a visitor, Hatfield archeaologist Randy Daum, who gave the great presentation at our meeting this past week, about his discovery of a late 1600s Colonial village in North Hatfield. He was interested in some of the old maps showing homesteads, in the piece of a brass spoon from the 17th century, and our old deeds. If you have any 17th century (or early 18th century) deeds or artifacts from Hatfield, especially from the Bradstreet area, consider showing them to Randy, as it may help his research. And if you’re looking for a place to keep those items safe and make them available to you and the public for the future, please consider donating them to the Historical Museum.

Check out our upcoming April and May programs on the Events page, as well as new featured artifacts on the Home page! 

 

“What happens at the Historical Museum during the winter months?” you might wonder. Winter is a sporadic time, so sometimes it’s a flurry of activity, and sometimes it’s dead quiet as we hunker down in our homes, attend to our lives and (this winter) move snow.

Yesterday, as the weather edged toward spring and the sun showed its face, the town’s DPW Crew performed two important moves for the Historical Society. The first was to move the Esty Pump Organ to the Town Hall from Holy Trinity Church on Main St.

The organ was donated to the Society in 2001 by the estate of Stanley Malinowski, and moved from his home in New York state to Hatfield using funds raised by the Historical Society. Since there was no room in the museum and so that the organ could be played now and then, it was decided that it should reside at Holy Trinity Church.

In May 2002, organist Lary Grossman and others gave a concert on the newly refurbished organ. With the closing of the church this past December, we needed to move the organ to town property.

Currently, you can take a closer look at the Esty pump organ in the Town Hall Auditorium, just past the voting cubicles, but eventually it will be moved upstairs to the Parlor.

Next, the town crew moved five surplus Smith Academy science lab tables (with thick oak tops – read “heavy”!) from SA to the Town Hall. These tables will be used to review and process museum donations and/or do preservation work on artifacts. Because they are lab tables, they are very sturdy and at a great height to comfortably stand at, or use a stool. Thank you Smith Academy!

And thanks again to the town crew – William Young, James Lavallee, James Klepacki and Mark Hebert – who’ve been so helpful in getting our storage area set up in the balcony. We couldn’t have done it without you!