Our exhibit on Polish Immigration in Hatfield will be coming down in September, which means we’ll have two large cases to fill. We will replace one case with an exhibit on Medical Care in Hatfield in Years Past -- and we’re very excited about that, with museum volunteers Linda Golash and Vivian Kinzler taking the lead. Details to come in a future post. But that doesn’t leave us any extra time or people to develop an exhibit for the second of the two large cases. What to do?

Whately saves the day. Last week we were visited at the museum by two members of the Whately Historical Society (Adelia Bardwell and Jane Grybko) because we had some duplicate local book items to deaccession and thought they might be interested. We got to talking about exhibits and how this year they didn’t have quite enough artifacts in their Whately Postal History exhibit to fill their cases, so they ended up doing a case of recent acquisitions.

Brilliant. What a wonderful idea! Why didn’t I think of that? Not only would it make the donors happy, but it would have broad appeal and be relatively quick and easy to assemble. It would also help us gauge interest for future exhibits.

"The Loud, the Weird and the Wonderful: A Sampling of Recent Acquisitions" will now be our second exhibit opening for Fall Festival on Oct. 6, 2013. Thank you Adelia and Jane!

**And if you'd like to check out the Whately Historical Society's Recent Acquisitions, as well as their look back at Whately Postal History and their perennial exhibit on Whately Potters, their museum is open every Tuesday morning from 9 am to 12 noon, or by appointment by calling 413-665-3837. 

In preparation for the Hatfield Historical Museum’s spring exhibit on Polish Immigration in Hatfield, yesterday I visited the Polish Center of Discovery and Learning at Elms College in Chicopee (Mass.), along with fellow Historical Society member and Polish Center volunteer Linda Golash. There we were given a VIP tour by the Center’s charming executive director, Stas Radosz (at left). The center is now housed in a beautifully renovated 18-room mansard roof house from the mid-19th century that used to serve as a church rectory. (Prior to the extensive renovation and fundraising campaign, the Center was housed on the third floor of Berchmans Hall on the Elms College campus.)

Though neither their renovation work nor their fundraising is done, you wouldn’t know it to tour the facility. It is gorgeous (see custom-made chandelier in the foyer, created for the museum and donated by a local artist), and each room has been thoughtfully designed and filled with artifacts and records from the lives of Polish Americans, including Poles coming to America and bringing with them pieces of home.

Home, I learned from Stas and from the exhibits, happened to be other countries during the time of the first wave of Polish emigration to this area (1904-1912), as “Poland” at that time had been carved into three “Partitions” and was ruled, variously, by Russia, Prussia (Germany) and Austria. Poland didn’t gain her independence back until 1918.

Besides its galleries and the research facilities it holds, the center also hosts lectures, concerts, films, workshops and more (including a vodka tasting that had taken place the night before) – all focused on presenting the history and cultural traditions of the Polish people in the United States and Europe. You can even hire out the center to hold a private event. I've included some of my favorite artifacts below. Check them out and check out the Polish Center! Just 25-30 minutes from Hatfield, a few turns off Rt. 91 and you're there!

It is hard for me to visit a museum now without thinking somewhat of our own museum. Do they do something well that we could learn from? Do they do something poorly that we could learn from? Today I visited the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester with my husband, my two kids and a friend of my son’s. My 13-year-old son is not really “into” museums at this age, but he admitted that this was probably “the most interesting museum” he’d ever been to.

Whoa. Now that deserves a little investigation! We have been to some pretty impressive museums, so I asked him – and the rest of the group – what made it so interesting?

As it turns out, we all had similar answers. We most enjoyed the hands-on space they call “Castle Quest.” From the website, it had sounded more oriented toward young kids, and it does have a lot of activities for that age group, but it also had real metal helmets and a coat of chain mail and chest plate to try on that was large enough for an adult, but hung low enough (from chains) that a kid could slip into it. Really a very clever arrangement, hung in front of a mirror so you could see what you looked like. The helmets were attached with plastic-coated security cables, so you could easily try them on – and photograph each other – but not walk away with the artifacts.

They also had a cool machine that simulated the weight of pulling back a bowstring for different types of bows, with a digital readout of how far your arrow could go.

Of course what made this all the more interesting was that we had not only already walked through the 3rd and 4th floors full or armor, but we had watched a presentation on “Dressing a Stormtrooper and a Gothic Knight,” so we had some idea of all the pieces involved.

Oh, did I forget to mention that it was “Star Wars Day” at the Armory? Yes, that was some of the draw for our visit, though it was a mixed blessing because the museum was chock full of short caped visitors slashing their light sabers at their siblings, but it did allow us to see some interesting demonstrations – for instance a Jedi Master and a Sith in a light saber duel, and a Star Wars armor building demonstration, including some give-aways of a replica of the character Han Solo frozen in carbonite.*

Of course we have no room currently in our museum for a separate hands-on space, but our visit to the Armory brought home the point that pretty much everyone likes to have something to hold and examine, or to try on, especially when it’s from an earlier time or a different way of life. The trick is in making those experiences easy, safe for the artifacts (or replicas) and pertinent to the museum’s mission. Having managed all three, the Higgins Armory Museum got high votes from all of us.

*It was my lucky day, as I won one of those Han Solo replicas!