Vol. 3, No. 6                                                                            November 2008

Recap of Fall Meeting in Harrisville

The fall meeting of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum met at Cheshire Mill No. 2 in Harrisville on Thursday October 16th. Thirteen people attend this meeting representing 10 historic organizations from the region.

Historic Harrisville, Inc. hosted this meeting in part of their recently renovated mill. We wish to thank Linda Willett of Historic Harrisville for offering us such wonderful space to hold our meeting and Anne Howe and Ginny Brooks for their help in organizing the meeting and providing great refreshments.

In addition to a full morning of roundtable discussion, which included a discussion on deaccessioning and local historical organizations being part of a local history curriculum project, Chick Colony gave us an extensive tour of Cheshire Mill No. 1 and 2 to view Historic Harrisville's efforts to restore and continue using the old mill complex.

The next Roundtable meeting will be on Thursday 19 February 2009 at the Historical Society of Cheshire County beginning at 9:30 a.m. In addition to our traditional Roundtable sharing, we will have an afternoon program on creating and using PowerPoint software.

John Harris of Dublin, has suggested that the Roundtable Forum consider the possibility of a cooperative deaccessioning venture. This idea was discussed with good interest at the meeting in Harrisville. It was decided to conduct a survey of what items might be available for deaccessioning from each organization to better gauge what type of venture might be possible. A Deaccession Survey Form is enclosed in this newsletter and available on the HSCC web site. Please return this survey to HSCC by or at the next Roundtable meeting on 19 February 2009.

The Historical Society of Cheshire County is considering writing a local history based curriculum for grades 3 and 4. This vision was present at the Roundtable in Harrisville. Integral to the vision is the role local historical organizations would play to support and actively participate in sharing their local history with students. Although most of the details are not yet know, a conceptualized vision was discussed. It was agreed that HSCC has the support of Roundtable members to continue pursuing this initiative.

Wyman Tavern Forum

In mid October, the Historical Society of Cheshire County held four forums to gather community comments that would be used to help develop a long range plan for the Wyman Tavern Museum. Although it would have been nice to have had a larger number of people participate, each of the four forums went well. Results, which have implications for anyone who owns and operates a historic structure, will be shared at the next Roundtable meeting in February. If you have not already participated, your comments would be appreciated. A Wyman Tavern Survey Form is available on the HSCC web site. We wish to thank everyone who participated, and in particular Terri Sillanpaa of Fitzwilliam, Neil Jenness of Chesterfield, and Bert Wingerson of Nelson for there support and help in organizing these forums.

Schools & Education Collaborative Exhibit Project

The next step in our collaborative project is to have each participating organization fill out a collection survey form that indicates the type of items you have in your collection that you would be willing to have on loan for the exhibit, such as artifacts, photographs, and documents. The subcommittee requests this information be returned via mail or email by or at the next Roundtable meeting on 19 February 2009. The Exhibit Survey Form is also available on the HSCC web site.

Below is the project's timeline and deadline dates.

19 February 09 - Return survey form of artifacts, documents, and photographs for the exhibit to the subcommittee.

18 June 09 - Submission from participating organization of their written history and photographs for the publication.

30 October 09 - Delivery deadline of all artifacts/items that will be used in the exhibit.

20 November 09 - Tentative opening of exhibit and completion of publication.

Contact & Web Site Information

For all questions or concerns regarding any aspect of the Monadnock Historical Societies Forum, please contact HSCC's Tom Haynes at 603-352-1895 or dired@hsccnh.org. Please remember to post and share this newsletter with your members. Also, please remember to submit your events for posting on the Roundtable Events page of the Roundtable Forum web site.