Warwick Historical Society Minutes - December 19, 2012 The WHS business meeting was called to order at 7:08 p.m. by Larry Carey. Present at the meeting were Larry Carey, Ed Lemon, Dave and Bev Shepardson, Freddie and Calvin Fellows, Ann Miner, Charlie Brown, Michael Carey, Barbara Walker, Mel Kitchen, Martha Morse, Arline Lincoln, Rod and Helen Whipple, Patty Ernest, and Carol Foote. Secretary's Report: The minutes of the September 19, 2012 meeting were accepted as read. Treasurer's Report: The account balances are as follows: Checking: $ 1,235.52; Savings: 4,053.45; CD: 10,183.20; TOTAL: 15,472.17 There were no income or expense figures available. Select Board member Dawn Magi spoke to the group about Warwick's 250th Anniversary plans and in particular the need for more parade participants. Martha M. agreed to contact the band directors of PVRS and the Warwick Community School regarding the parade scheduled for August 24, 2013. Mel Kitchen volunteered to contact "Crimson Acres," a local equestrian group. After some discussion of anniversary event plans already in place, Dawn thanked society members for their interest and left the meeting at 7:25 p.m. Larry asked if anyone has more ideas on how the Society can participate in Anniversary events. Martha told members about "American Harmony", a new chorus of Western Massachusetts singers formed by music historian Nym Cooke to celebrate the music of early America. Martha suggested the WHS might like to sponsor an American Harmony concert in Warwick as a fundraiser for the Society. A motion to this effect was made and passed unanimously. Martha is a member of the group and will pursue the idea with the director. Larry asked for help in selling the WHS t-shirts already in stock and ideas for new places to set up. Mel agreed to help as needed. Michael Carey reported that the Museum security system is now set up and working as intended. Bev Shepardson reported that in the course of her research on Boston Post Cane recipients in Warwick, she has learned that the town of Greenfield gives a pin to cane recipients. It is nice for cane recipients to have the pin to keep, since the cane itself is always passed along to the oldest town resident. She had a sample of the pin with her, and passed it around the group. After some discussion, a motion was made to recommend that the Select Board purchase the Boston Post Cane pin, to be given at the time the cane is awarded. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Ed Lemon gave the Curator's report and it is attached. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m., followed by the Yankee Gift Swap and refreshments. Our next quarterly meeting will be March 20, 2013. Respectfully submitted, Martha Morse, secretary Curator's Report December 19, 2012 Inventory and Cataloguing By mid-October we had come to a good place to stop operations for the year. Rather than starting a new and daunting series of cataloguing projects, we thought it better to start off afresh in 2013, rather than burn ourselves out after some very exhausting efforts. Of course, much remains to be done, but with 1178 separate objects catalogued, the database is truly impressive and its usefulness has been proven by several guests who have discovered family facts and museum items via the internet, among them several members of the Cook family, who travelled from New York to spend some time in the museum. Thanks again to my mainstays Freddie, Cal, Bev and Deb. Thanks also to Martha Morse and Liz Whipple, who dropped in when they could. Web Page As most of you know, I am publishing two web pages for the town, the Official Town Page and our Historical Society's page. For reasons of space, I have had to put some items on the town's page, but I hope to have links to them on the WHS page soon. I got permission to post Marilyn Allred's Genealogy book and Ed Hawes' supplement to Morse's history online. At the moment you can find those books and several others (Jolly Good Times at Hackmatack, The Joys and Sorrows of Home, Blake's History of Warwick) on the town page. Donations We had hoped to get permission from Peter King, one of the owners of the recently burned Stevens property off Old Winchester Road, to remove and preserve the commemorative plaque located at that site. Unfortunately the other trustees of the property were unwilling to donate it to the Society, so Mr. King reluctantly declined to let us have it. I'll repeat my request for contributions to the museum - objects, documents, photographs, reminiscences - all are welcome! Security I'm pleased to remind everyone again that thanks to Michael Carey, we now have an Apollo45 security system installed in the museum. There are four wide-view infrared and motion sensitive cameras mounted in the building, linked to a display system that can be accessed over the internet. For example, I can sit at home and see the output from all four cameras, check out any incidents, and call for help, if necessary. 250th Anniversary Project Our commemorative booklet "A History of Warwick in Objects" has gotten underway. I'm passing around a mock-up of the layout of the text. We also have several essays, one of which I'm also passing around so those of you working on this can have an idea of what we're looking for. Deb Paulson, Martha Kitchen and I are handling the editing, illustrations and production of the book, strengthened by a grant of $500 from the Cultural Council. Please note that your essays will be edited to stay within the limits we have, so some of your deathless prose will probably be changed or removed. The idea is not just to write a little essay on your subject but also to link it to Warwick's history specifically, and the history of the country as well. Freddie's short piece on the school bell is a good example of how to do this. Other Once again may I remind you that we need helpers to get oral and video interviews with long-term residents. We have digital recorders that are very easy to use. Some of you, I am sure, have interesting tales to tell and I'll be happy to record them. Just let me know! Respectfully submitted, Ed Lemon, Curator