NHS Director 5/11/22 NHS Director 5/11/22

Natick Historical Society receives Mass Humanities Bridge Street Sponsorships

The Natick Historical Society has been awarded three Mass Humanities Bridge Street Sponsorships totaling $1,500. The funding will support the NHS’s proposed Fall 2022 online speaker series “Indigenous Histories and Futures in Natick, Massachusetts.” The three-part speaker series will allow attendees to consider important questions about Indigenous experiences in Natick and beyond from the seventeenth century until today.

Mass Humanities Bridge Street Sponsorships fund free online programs hosted by Massachusetts historical societies, centers, museums, or historic sites, helping these institutions recover lost income and enabling free access to the humanities.

For almost 50 years, Mass Humanities has created opportunities for the people of Massachusetts to transform their lives and build a more equitable commonwealth through the humanities.

Founded in 1870, the Natick Historical Society (NHS) is one of Massachusetts's oldest local historical societies. Today, the NHS operates a museum and archives and serves a growing number of community members, scholars, and young people by offering (increasingly virtual) programs, exhibits, and research services and bringing local history to community projects and events. Since its incorporation, the NHS has remained an independent nonprofit that receives no public funds.

NHS Director 3/8/22 NHS Director 3/8/22

Natick Historical Society Holds Annual Meeting

On Sunday, February 27, the Natick Historical Society (NHS) held its virtual annual meeting. Participants heard reports from Fran Weisse, Chair of the Programs Committee; Steve Evers, Chair of the Facilities Committee; Jan Parsons and Ken Van Blarcom, Co-Chairs of the Collections Committee; and Patrick Thomas, Treasurer. President Mike Pojman ran the meeting and announced a title change from “Director” to “Executive Director” for Niki Lefebvre. Lefebvre gave an overview of NHS activities in 2021.

NHS officers Mike Pojman (President), Vincent Vittoria (Vice President), Terri Evans (Secretary), and Patrick Thomas (Treasurer) were reelected for one-year terms. Board Members Terri Evans, Steve Evers, Ken Van Blarcom, and Vincent Vittoria were reelected for three-year terms.

Read the NHS 2021 Annual Review HERE.

NHS Director 2/8/22 NHS Director 2/8/22

Remembering Rudman Ham

In Memoriam
Rudman “Rud” Ham

We are saddened to note the passing of former NHS Board member Rud Ham on January 24, 2022. Rud served on the Board for six years (2011-2017).

Rud was highly regarded for his achievements in healthcare management. He retired as Vice President of Operations at Children’s Hospital Boston. He was valued and beloved by the many community organizations in Boston and Metrowest that benefited from his expertise in leadership and management, including an appreciative Natick Historical Society.

Other local organizations that benefited from Rud’s expertise were Middlesex Savings Bank, where he led the establishment of the Middlesex Charitable Foundation, and the boards of the Bacon Free Library and the Foundation for MetroWest. Rud was instrumental in starting the Natick Community Organic Farm Advisory Board and served as its chair. And also served on the boards of Natick Center Associates and The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN).

Born and raised in New Hampshire, he was introduced to Natick early, spending summers in high school and college working at Lookout Farm for his uncle, Cyrus Jenness, who acquired the farm in 1925.

A celebration of Rud’s life is planned for June. Click here to read the full obituary of a remarkable man and a life well lived.

NHS Director 1/26/22 NHS Director 1/26/22

NHS Installs New Cabinets in Historic Museum Space

The historic museum at 58 Eliot Street, on the lower level of the Bacon Free Library, has become even more beautiful. With the support of many generous donors, the NHS contracted with John I. Murphy & Co. to design and install four sets of custom cabinets. The cabinets now sit above the original wood and glass display cases designed for the museum when it opened in 1880. The new cabinets add 100 linear feet of storage, which will house small artifacts, archival materials, and supplies.

The new cabinets are part of a larger NHS initiative to re-center its work in the museum. The additional storage space provided by the cabinets will make it possible to bring archival and research materials back into the museum, now housed in a temporary location off-site. “Our goal is to make those materials more accessible to the public, so we can have more people learning about and connecting with Natick’s past,” says NHS director Niki Lefebvre.

The NHS staff and leadership are delighted with the look of the cabinets. “The cabinets fit in seamlessly; a visitor new to the museum would never realize that they weren’t original,” says board member Fran Weisse. Fellow board member Jan Parsons adds, “We are thrilled with our additional cabinets. They will protect our valued artifacts while providing much-needed storage at the museum for our consolidated collection.”

The photographs below show the progress of the installation to date. Visitors will be welcome to view the cabinets in person when the museum reopens later this year.

NHS Director 12/14/21 NHS Director 12/14/21

Natick Historical Society Receives Grant from the Foundation for MetroWest’s Fund for Arts & Culture

The Natick Historical Society has been awarded a $13,000 grant from the Foundation for MetroWest’s Fund for Arts and Culture. The funding will support the NHS as we reimagine how we serve the community, reposition our staffing, and retool our technology needs while ensuring sustainable growth.

The Foundation for MetroWest's 2021 grant programs in the areas of Family Support, Arts & Culture, and Environment focused on providing general operating grants with a focus on recovery, rebuilding, and resilience. Of the 99 applicants, the Natick Historical Society was one of 39 grant recipients.

Established in 1995, the Foundation for MetroWest is the community foundation serving the cities and towns in the region, encompassing 700,000 residents from Westborough to Waltham and Acton to Dedham. The Foundation promotes philanthropy across the area, helps donors maximize the impact of their local giving, serves as a resource for local nonprofits, and enhances the quality of life for all our residents. The Foundation is supported by various businesses, individuals, community groups, and other philanthropic organizations. Since its inception, the Foundation has granted $23 million to its nonprofit partners and currently stewards more than $30 million in charitable assets for current needs and future impact. To learn more, please visit http://www.foundationmw.org/ or call 508-647-2260.

NHS Director 8/18/21 NHS Director 8/18/21

Get to Know our Summer Collections Interns

This summer, we have been grateful to work with three Collections Interns: Emma Choe, a rising senior at Natick High School, Celia Lanza, a rising senior at Needham High School; and Caroline Niedermeyer, a rising junior at Natick High School.

NHS Collections Interns can contribute to several projects, but this summer, Emma, Celia, and Caroline have worked with our photograph collections. To date, they have inventoried over 500 photographs -- and they are still hard at work! They've also rehoused the photographs in archival boxes, now shelved at the Natick History Museum on the lower level of the Bacon Free Library. We've shared a number of the images they've inventoried on social media. Take a look HERE and HERE!

We asked Emma, Celia, and Caroline to answer questions about their passion for the past and work at the NHS. You can read their responses below:

1. When did you first get interested in history?

Emma: I initially became interested in history in 5th grade, watching the History Channel on TV. I loved (and still love) how seemingly trivial objects from the past can tell a larger narrative today!

Celia: History has always been my favorite subject in school. My freshman-year World History teacher got me to love history, and three years later, I still think about what he taught me.

Caroline: I got interested in history during my freshman year and quarantine because I had much free time to explore and research Natick.

2. Do you have a favorite set of photos among the NHS Collections you've worked with this summer?

Emma: My favorite collection I’ve worked with has been the Canoe & Boat Livery photographs. It’s always nice seeing the continuation of traditions & activities into the present, but specifically, one photo of a dog in a canoe with a gramophone swayed me.

Celia: My favorite set of photos I worked on this summer was the Casey's Diner collection.

Caroline: My favorite collection with the NHS is either the old Natick Mall photos or Casey’s Diner!

3. What's great about learning local history?

Emma: Learning about local history gratifies me because it proves how much we’ve grown as a community. Because the composition of buildings today is so different from back then, local history is vital to understanding how the town developed into what we know.

Celia: I have always been fascinated to learn about the stories of the individuals who made up our communities in the past. Learning local history is an excellent opportunity to study people from the past that you would have never heard of otherwise.

Caroline: Learning about local history is interesting because you’re around it every day. It’s fun to look around and speculate where things used to be or what they looked like.

NHS Director 7/15/21 NHS Director 7/15/21

Exciting Changes at the Natick History Museum

Since 1880, the Natick Historical Society has been housed on the lower level of the Bacon Free Library. Early visitors marveled at specimens of flora and fauna and relics from all over the world. They studied historical documents and read rare books. For many, our museum offered a glimpse of lands they could never hope to visit.

2018, we renovated our museum, revealing its gleaming windows and 19th-century woodwork. Since then, we've used a temporary space to reorganize materials amassed over our 150-year history. Every day, we continue to curate collections that will serve our community for generations.

We are transforming our original home into a 21st-century portal that inspires curiosity beyond our walls. Since January, more than 350 individuals have registered for our virtual programs, and we've responded to 35 online research requests. We have brought our work to Natick schools with projects like Remembering Harwood and our new digital education platform for third graders, On This Land Online. We are also excited to bring history into the community with 13 new interpretative panels detailing Natick's past situated along the Cochituate Rail Trail. And we continue to expand historical content on our website, social media pages, and now on our new YouTube channel.

This year, we're ready to recenter our work in our original home at 58 Eliot Street. We'll retrofit some historic glass cases to hold research materials, add additional storage for maps and artifacts, and upgrade our technical capacity. With our research materials, collections, and staff and volunteers together again, we'll have more open hours, more public programming, and more opportunities to serve researchers and students.

With your generous support, we can maintain our beautifully renovated museum and better serve our community. We aim to raise $10,000 for our Annual Fund to support a transition back to our original home in the lower level of the Bacon Free Library.

Together, we can make history count in Natick. We look forward to welcoming you back into our historic museum soon!

If you would like to contribute to the NHS, please click HERE.

**Please note our primary phone number (508.647.4841) and mailing address (58 Eliot Street).