Abby Epplett, Historian

On Thursday, March 30 at 7:00 p.m., I attended the fifth installment of the 2023 Parked at Home series hosted via Zoom by Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) and Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor . During this Parked at Home talk, park rangers Mark Mello and Andrew Schnetzer of BRVNHP were joined by Claire Casey of Ste. Geneviève National Historical Park in Ste. Geneviève, MO , one of the newest parks in the National Park Service. The talk began with a brief presentation by Schnetzer as he described commonalities between the Blackstone Valley area and Ste. Geneviève. He recalled the beginning of English colonization in New England, including the first settlements at Jamestown , the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony during the 1620s, and the Puritans in Massachusetts Bay Colony from the 1630s onward. At the same time, French colonists arrived in Nouvelle France , hoping to become rich from fur trapping and fishing in areas like Acadia...

This past Saturday — July 6, 2024 — I visited three stops in the Passport to History developed by Old Colony History Museum , along with one bonus stop. Attleboro Area Industrial Museum was the second stop on my trip. I had been meaning to visit this museum since learning about it at the Industrial History New England Lunch on Day 1 of NEMA Conference 2022 , so this visit checks off another item from my very long museum bucket list.

Founded in 1897 as a place to collect the history of the rapidly changing industrial city of Lynn, MA , the museum in the Downtown Cultural District houses the community art galleries of LynnArts on the first floor and the artifact-based exhibits of Lynn Historical Society on the second floor. Set in an area described as “one of Massachusetts’ best kept secrets” by Mass Cultural Council , this perfectly sized museum is a quick visit to give a comprehensive overview of life in the so-called city of sin since its settlement by European colonists in 1629.

I recently had an adventure in the Mystic / Lyme region of Connecticut and spent about a day and a half at Mystic Seaport Museum . This is the fourth post in a six-part miniseries about my visit. My last three posts covered Part 1 and Part 2 of “Seaport Village” along with the “Preservation Shipyard” . Today’s post features the “Galleries”, which hosted exhibits on ship figureheads, glass reproductions of sea creatures, art and diversity in maritime New England, the history of shipping, and a large model of Mystic. Upcoming posts will include “Boats, Signs, & Shows” and “Bonus Houses”.

October 13 was Day 1 of Historic New England Summit 2022 held at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. The theme for the conference is “Recovering New England’s Voices”, after HNE’s multi-phase initiative to research the histories of marginalized people and communities. In the words of Dr. Alissa Butler, Study Center Manager at HNE, the organization seeks to “shift and recenter the learning experience to cover all these incredible stories”. Below are highlights from the summit with links to learn more. There was so much great conversation, and I could not include it all! Forging a New Lens The first speaker in this section were Dr. Alissa Butler , whose quote appears in the opening paragraph. She described the process of hiring experts in Indigenous, Black, LGBTQ, and women’s history. Two of her stories were familiar to me, as I had visited the associated HNE houses in September (Those blog posts are coming soon!). The organization recenters...

I recently finished watching the first season of  Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village , which was directed, edited, and produced by award-winning local filmmaker Christian de Rezendes of Breaking Branch Pictures . I last met de Rezendes, along with  Slatersville researcher-producer Gail Denomme , at North Smithfield Heritage Day on July 8 , where they led tours using the history featured in the documentary. The series itself was nominated for a 46 th Boston/New England Emmy Award in the documentary category and won the music composition/arrangement category for its score composed by  Stephen Gilbane . Besides its high artistic merit, the documentary shared stories of Slatersville and its residents that had never before been published. “Episode 1: The Mental Smugglers” covered the life of Samuel Slater , a mill worker from Belper, England , an industrial town in the Amber Valley within the county of Derbyshire . Slater memorized the entire text...

From November 2 through November 4, I attended the 2022 Annual NEMA ( New England Museum Association ) Conference as a General Scholarship Recipient , which I received thanks to “ Connecticut Humanities and the Connecticut Office of the Arts ; MassHumanities ; Mass Cultural Council ; Vermont Humanities ; and NEMA Annual Appeal donors. After two years of attending virtually, the 104 th edition of the conference was back in-person at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts Session 1 Who Was Mary Duncan? Accessing New Narratives at Historic House Museums Danielle Bennett , a graduate student at CUNY Graduate Center , and Jan Williams , the Executive Director of Buttonwoods Museum , also called Haverhill Historical Society, discussed their efforts in turning tours in Haverhill from “Old Dead Rich White Guy History” to a more inclusive narrative. Several women are featured in the new Buttonwoods tours. One story features Hannah Duston ,...

From November 2 through November 4, I attended the 2022 Annual NEMA ( New England Museum Association ) Conference as a General Scholarship Recipient , which I received thanks to “ Connecticut Humanities and the Connecticut Office of the Arts ; MassHumanities ; Mass Cultural Council ; Vermont Humanities ; and NEMA Annual Appeal donors. After two years of attending virtually, the 104 th edition of the conference was back in-person at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts Keynote Session: Becoming Good Ancestors: A Sense of Oneness Before the keynote, NEMA Executive Director Dan Yaeger began with opening remarks about the last time the conference had gone on hiatus, which was during World War II when some museum workers were drafted. He introduced the new Value Statements and Mission Statement, which highlight the need for equitable treatment of all people, dismantling oppressive structures within the museum world, addressing the global climate cri...