Exciting Changes At The Natick History Museum

Press release from the Natick Historical Society:

July 15, 2021

Since 1880, the Natick Historical Society has had its home in 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 They studied historical documents and read rare books.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.

In 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 to come.

Now 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 And we continue to expand historical content on our website, social media pages, and now on our new YouTube channel.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 be retrofitting some historic glass cases to hold research materials, adding additional storage for maps and artifacts, and upgrading our technical capacity. With our research materials, our collections, and our 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. Our goal is 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 make a contribution to the NHS, please click HERE.

This press release was produced by the Natick Historical Society. The views expressed here are the author’s own.