Open. Open. Completed!

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 4, 2018

Eileen McGrath and Nat Philbrick cut the ribbon.

Interior of Research Center.

There has been a lot going on!


OPEN: On May 25th , we had our opening reception to thank donors and contractors who worked on converting our Science Library into our new Research Center – a multi-year project that I have documented on this blog.


A big thank you to our donors and all the women and men who completed the work on the building.  I have listed them several times before but our thanks are so very deep.  We could have not have done it without all of them!


We will be having special workshops and open collection events throughout the summer – and some of our lectures will be held in the Research Center as well.  So check out our calendar online.  We hope to see you at one – or multiples!


OPEN:   Mitchell House is open for the season!  Come take a look and have a tour.  If you have not been in in some time, or never (tsk tsk), now is the time with Maria’s 200th Birthday this year!  Don’t just walk through the home she lived in – walk through the home she was born in 200 years ago!


COMPLETED: After another multi-year process, I am happy to report that the wrought iron fence at the Mitchell Family lot at Prospect Hill Cemetery (see below) has been completed and installed!  This was a community Preservation Act funded project.  The stone bases for the fence were realigned by Neil Patterson and his crew several years ago and DeAngelis Ironwork of Boston restored the fence using a historic photograph from our collection.  It is not an exact reproduction as such a thing was completely cost prohibitive unfortunately but it speaks to the fence that was once there – just a bit simpler – using exiting patterns/molds.

Oh and wait!  Did I mention we have new signs? See below!


Whew!

JNLF

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April 1878. The conference of Woman’s Congress officers met in Washington. Because we had one member in Washington we were invited to meet in that place. I went on at a great expense of time, money and strength . . . . We were in session at least nine hours. I think that more than half of that was used by Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Sayles. The only motion which I carried through was to pay the Secretary $200 . . . In 1878, that was a long train(s) ride to Washington, DC from Poughkeepsie, NY and Vassar College. If Maria seems perturbed, I am sure she was. As president of the Association for the Advancement of Women, and thus the Congress, she had to be at the meeting. But it appears she did not get much say in the nine hour meeting. This was also a long trip to take when she had another, even longer trip coming up in July of 1878. In that month, she would travel with students and her sister, Phebe, out west to Colorado to view the eclipse and that train and wagon ride I am sure was weighing on her mind – not just the physical trip but making her way for an important eclipse viewing event. JNLF
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