Author: Michelle Shen

In the evening hours of January 24th, one day before the Lunar (Chinese) New Year, a five-alarm fire ripped through the building housing the archives of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA NYC) on Mulberry Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. It took eleven hours for firefighters to control the flames. Thankfully, no lives were lost. While the fire did not reach the precious artifacts housed at the site, the water from the fire hoses did. The damage to the collection which features items from Chinese-American history not found elsewhere is catastrophic. Estimates put the number of lost artifacts, spanning 160 years of history, at 85,000.

As the flames consumed the building and the water came pouring down our hearts were flooded with sorrow for our colleagues at MOCA NYC. After all, a museum’s collection is the museum. Archives such as the ones housed at MOCA—and to a large extent at Westport Museum (WM)—are remarkable for the glimpse they offer into overlooked people whose everyday lives are the real foundation of our collective national story.

This has caused persistent concerns about temperature and humidity control. While 70 Mulberry is a 120 year old building, renovation presumably made it stable enough to withstand the weight of such a large trove of objects and papers. Conversely, WM’s costumes collection weighing many tons was housed in a second floor bedroom of Wheeler house—a 155 year old residential site adapted from a 1795 structure. It was not built to withstand that kind of weight. Worse, the collection sat on top of a load bearing beam that had been flagged as unstable decades previously.

Most agonizing, perhaps, for the MOCA curators and archivists was the fact that their extensive holdings had been professionally, painstakingly cataloged and maintained over years. Sadly, small organizations (ours included) are often handled by dedicated, untrained volunteers who don’t always know or follow best practices of museum collections management.

Today, three years after the Westport Museum’s Board of Directors’ adoption of a strategic plan created as part of the Standards of Excellence Program for History Organization (StEPs) developed by the American Association for State & Local History (AASLH) we are on a steady path to professional management of our holdings.

StEPs “helps history museums, historical societies, historic house museums and libraries with archival collections build professionalism and ensure their programs and collections remain vibrant community resources.”

We’re taking the mandates we learned from StEPs very seriously. But what does that include?

For example, archival storage is a very specific science that includes specialized storage containers, temperature and humidity controls, and precise cataloging for the purpose of research. We are ensuring all of our collections items are housed in the proper boxes, files, cases and cloth.

In the past, our vault was misused as generalized storage (including gift shop inventory) and there was no way to know what was there. There was only a sparse index and few Finding Aids which are necessary and standard in research institutions. Because there was a long list of folks with access to the vault and the building, there were no controls in place to protect our holdings—some of which are priceless (at least to us) in the pursuit of historical research. This may not seem so bad (many people think we should be more “easy going” as a small community institution), but our nonprofit status requires we follow certain protocols to protect collections. To neglect, destroy, improperly dispose or allow mishandling of them is considered an abdication of responsibility and is specifically against the law. Since 2018 access to the vault is no longer unregulated.

When digitization is done we will have to charge image reproduction fees on a sliding scale based on usage (commercial, private, nonprofit.) In the past, WHS copyrights were not always respected but we are trying to remedy this with the fee structure. This is common for institutions like ours. For example: We have been quoted research and usage fees from fellow nonprofits for work on our own behalf anywhere from $150 to $2000 depending on how extensive our request is. When we can afford to make use of these institutions and pay their fees we do so without complaint—because we know the money is going right back into the management of their important collections.

In our vault we have documents dating back 300 years. The work we are doing today is meant to, hopefully, preserve them for 300 more. It’s a long process with as many steps backwards as forwards—the structural failure in our building attests to that. Like other nonprofits, lack of funding exacerbates these challenges but we will persevere with dedication and professionalism.

Even so, no organization is disaster proof. The MOCA NYC’s story proves that. We can only hope to mitigate catastrophe if it strikes with an updated disaster management plan that takes the limitations of our physical space and previous construction into account.

Thankfully, our friends at MOCA NYC have mobilized quickly and are in the process of recovering whatever they can from their damaged collections. We believe it’s our responsibility to stand by our museum colleagues and help whenever we can. Some of our staff have personally donated to MOCA NYC’s fire recovery fund. We are asking our member community to find it in your hearts to perhaps do the same here.

It’s October or “Spooky Season” as my teenage daughter likes to call it. There is good fun in getting a good fright. After all, who doesn’t love a good scream from time to time?

Here at the Museum, we host Spooktober, a month of programming paying homage to the creepy and sinister events that are the hallmark of this time of year.

From our resurrection of author Washington Irving to retell his macabre story about the headless horseman from his famed book The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to our always-anticipated cemetery tours on October 12th and 19th to our Haunted House on October 26th–we’re all in on giving you a fun-filled fright.

Because we are history museum, we like to base our Halloween happenings on real stories from the past. Westport, like other colonial-era towns, has plenty of scary events from days gone by. At our First Annual Haunted House last year, we featured the story of Westport’s Witches, four local women–Mercy Disbrow, Goodie Miller, Elizabeth Clawson and Mary Staples–who were targeted in the panic and terror of the witch trials that plagued New England and which began in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.

Mrs. Miller was considered unusual in her behavior and Mrs. Staples was shunned for being outspoken. Suspicion also fell on Mrs. Staples as she had previously been accused in 1653 during the Connecticut Witch Panic. Mrs. Staples was known for being “shrewd” and had little patience for Puritan extremes—a criminal offense in Connecticut, a colony known at the time to be far more stringent in its religious ways than even the Massachusetts.

During last year’s Haunted House we also shared ghoulish histories closer to our own times: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Westport was the home of two concerns that made money on the business of the death. The Embalmers Supply Company (ESCO) made its preservation fluids at a factory on the Saugatuck River and the Saugatuck Manufacturing Company also on the riverfront, employed children in its trade of making buttons.

So, what frights do we have in store for you at THIS year’s 2nd Annual Haunted House? Why not join us and see? Get into your costumes and join the other goblins, ghosts and ghouls that will be convening 25 Avery Place on October 26th at 6pm for the most historically spooky Halloween event in town.

And who knows, you might actually get a peek at one of the real ghosts who frequent the Museum headquarters at Bradley-Wheeler House …

See you there!

In a world where things change so rapidly, one can always depend on history to comfortingly, placidly stay the same—right? 

Wrong. 

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  

It is only the facts of the past that remain unchanged. The truth of what happened, when, who was involved, who gained and who lost—these facts are irrefutable. Whether those facts are accurately retold—or told from all perspectives—is another matter entirely.  

It’s an important distinction because this retelling of facts—or parts of them–is what we call history.  What we know as history is subjective. It is a view of the past told through the eyes of an individual or group of individuals. Usually, that group is the one which holds the power to disseminate information. As such, what we call “history” can be one sided or lacking holistic depth.  

History can be imperfect, but the facts of the past are neither perfect nor imperfect, they simply exist. Standards for museum interpretation as outlined by national accrediting agencies guide us to offer visitors all the facts that we have available to us so that they may draw their own conclusions based on truth versus conjecture. In other words, historians and history organizations are charged with providing as complete a factual view of the past as is possible.  This is particularly important when we work with local schools to provide learning opportunities for students of all ages. 

This modern view of the work we do is actually one that has evolved over time and one which has guided many organizations similar to ours. Like them, we have moved toward creating exhibits and programs based upon facts. In so doing, we’ve also moved toward a clearer understanding of the work we do and its place in the world. 

In 2014 Fairfield Historical Society changed its name to the Fairfield Museum and History Center and in 2018 Stamford Historical Society followed suit. Nationally, Richmond Historical Society was renamed Virginia Museum for History and Culture in 2018. Similar name changes have been undertaken by historical societies in Ohio, Colorado and elsewhere. 

That is why I’m delighted to share that, as of September 28^th, with the opening of our newest exhibit Becoming Westport, Westport Historical Society will be now called Westport Museum for History & Culture—a name more factually indicative of what we do. 

While a name change is certainly different, it is not actually new. The Board of Directors voted to change the name of the organization back in 2017 after going through a program called StEPs (Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations) which was run by Connecticut Humanities. That program allowed the organization’s total operations to be assessed with the goal of creating a strategic plan. As part of that plan, a name change to incorporate “museum” was recommended.  

Perhaps, more interesting, name-changes are a regular part of our long history. Westport Historical Society was founded in 1887 as the Westport Historical Society but the name was changed to Saugatuck Historical Society in 1890 to be more historically representative of the town’s past. After years of non-operation, the Society re-opened in 1958 as the Westport-Weston Historical Society, becoming Westport Historical Society again in the early 1960s. 

So why did the Board of Directors choose to change the name yet again? The new name reflects WHS award-winning museum work and mission to explore history factually and by recognizing the many different aspects of local and regional culture that contribute to the town and larger area. 

There are practical business reasons for the name change as well. The quality of work that WHS has done in the last two years with respect to exhibits, programming, research and collaboration has put it in the category of respected museums. Formally, pursuing museum status allows WHS to apply for better funding opportunities in terms of grants and sponsorship’s. This is incredibly important since we do not receive state or federal funding outside of grants that we may or may not receive in any given year. Town funding that we received in years past as fees for record storage may no longer be available to us in the next budget year. 

Our switch to becoming the Westport Museum for History & Culture follows a trend among local cultural organizations to become more expansive and regional in their scope. The Westport Library’s transformation project, completed in 2019, evolved the library from a simple repository for books to a multimedia center with state-of-the-art performance venues, luring visitors county and statewide. The Westport Arts Center recently moved to a larger locale, changing its name to Museum of Contemporary Art reflective of the world-class shows and expansive scope it has achieved in the last few years. 

Now I know that a name change seems like a pretty big deal—and it is!–but what we are doing inside the museum is even more important. Over the last two years, we’ve been working incredibly hard to enact all the amazing goals in the Strategic Plan that the local community leaders who comprise our Board of Directors worked on with dedication for three years from 2014-2017.  

The great news is that we’ve had some incredible successes in a very short time and with limited resources. Our work revealing all of Westport’s history—stories previously told and those untold—is getting national recognition and we are grateful. 

But we are most grateful for is the chance to continue to do this good work under the umbrella of a new name that signals to Westporters and those beyond our border all that we can do. 

Thank you for being part of our journey—the best is yet to come! 

Ramin Ganeshram