2021 Massachusetts History Conference History: A Massachusetts Community Activity Presented by Massachusetts History Alliance With the generous support of our sponsors: Mass Humanities, Premier Conference Partner MA State Historical Records Advisory Board, Conference Partner University of Massachusetts Amherst Public History Program | Dorchester Historical Society University of Massachusetts Boston Graduate Studies in Public History & Archives and Joseph P. Healey Library Supporting Associates Robert Forrant | Mike Potaski Associates Digital Commonwealth | House of the Seven Gables | Essex National Heritage Commission Old Colony History Museum | Worcester Historical Museum Friends Museum & Collector Resource | Swift River Press: Public History & Communications by Pleun Bouricius William G. Pomeroy Foundation | Roche Brothers Contributors Tsongas Industrial History Center | Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) Metropolitan Waterworks Museum Monday, June 7th, 11:00 – 6:00 Time Session 11:00 – 6:00 Mass History Commons Exhibitor Hall 11:00 – 6:00 Café on the Commons 11:00 - 12:00 Community-Driven Exhibit Planning Researching and Reckoning with Massachusetts' Complicity in and Resistance to 11:00 - 12:00 Slavery Supporting and Sustaining Volunteers: From archival projects to institutional 11:00 - 12:00 programming 12:15 - 1:00 Coffee Hour 1:00 - 1:15 Welcome 1:15 - 2:15 Keynote Address: Dr. Diana Sierra Becerra 2:30 - 3:30 Finding Community through History 2:30 - 3:30 Curating Marginalized Heritage Engaging Community, Building Digital Collections: An introduction to RoPA (The 2:30 - 3:30 Roadmap for Participatory Archiving) 3:45 - 4:45 Unceasing Access: Research and collection development during COVID-19 Museum Education: How to start (if your organization is small), how to grow (if your 3:45 - 4:45 program already exists), and lessons learned Indigenous Communities and Historical Institutions: Beginning conversations, 3:45 - 4:45 building relationships 5:00 - 6:00 Happy Hour and Awards Fridays, Cafés on the Commons 1:00 – 2:30 June 11th Teaching History June 18th Working with History June 25th Preserving History Tuesdays, Classes on the Commons 6:00 – 8:00 Mass Humanities presents: Grants, Workshops, and Resources for Small History June 15th Organizations Taking STEPS Together: Exploring How Regional Groups of Small Museums Can June 22nd Work Together on Developing Organizational Strength and Sustainability June 29th Managing Preservation and Access to Public Records with the MA SHRAB 2 Welcome to the Sixteenth Annual Massachusetts History Conference! On behalf of the Mass History Alliance, Mass Humanities, the State Historical Records Advisory Board, and all of the sponsors and funders of this fantastic conference, I’d like to welcome you to the sixteenth annual Massachusetts History Conference. The world looks very different today than it did just before our last conference, in 2019. Not only did we skip 2020, but, between the COVID-19 pandemic and public health crisis, the ensuing economic crash, and the emergence of a strong and ubiquitous civil rights movement, the world came crashing in and changed our public and local history world, probably forever. Our conference is online this year; we all know why, and that brings some distinct advantages: people from across the state can participate without having to drive. There will be no obligatory 10-minute wait at the start because half is the attendees are stuck in traffic. We’re able to spread some of the sessions across the month of June so people can participate in more aspects of the conference. Who knew, once upon a time, that going online might be lowering the threshold to access? Today will be a day that is all about lowering the threshold and bringing more people into the fold of history, allowing the fold of history to change and renew itself. Our keynote speaker, Diana Sierra Becerra, shares the promise of public history with those whose stories were excluded from the record, emphasizing the necessity of changing our habits as we commit to changing the paradigm. Despite our efforts at recreating the live into the virtual, we will miss each other. The conference comes as we are on the cusp of being released back into the arms of our friends and the company of our peers. It’s promising, in its very existence, at least a partial move back to the world of running from one room to the other. Let us remember, though, when we go back to the in-person, that real-life conferences, too, need to somehow open the door. To Caroline Littlewood and Matt Friedman this conference owes its existence. To Katie MacDonald and Sonia Pacheco its riches. The committees and interns they worked with have done yeomans’ work. Let us know if you want to join the conference committee next year. Finally, at $40, this conference is a great deal, brought to you by the sponsors and institutional participants. Substantial financial support from our Premier Partner Mass Humanities, was matched by many other sponsors and donors. In particular, we thank our Partner, the Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB), and Major Sponsors, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Program in Public History, the University of Massachusetts Boston Public History and Archives Tracks and the Joseph P. Healey Library, the Dorchester Historical Society, and supporting associates Robert Forrant and Mike Potaski; and finally the Associates and Friends of the Conference, as well as the Contributing Members you will find listed in the program. Join the Mass History Alliance at www.masshistoryalliance.org. Help us grow! Have a wonderful day! Pleun Bouricius, President, Massachusetts History Alliance 3 2021 Massachusetts History Conference History: A Massachusetts Community Activity Monday, June 7, 2021 11:00 – 6:00 Mass History Commons Exhibitor Hall A place to showcase your organization, projects, and products 11:00 – 6:00 Café on the Commons Do you miss chatting with your colleagues and friends as you walked from session to session during our conference? Stop in to the Cafe on the Commons to connect with other attendees outside of the sessions. Sessions 11:00 – 12:00 COMMUNITY-DRIVEN EXHIBIT PLANNING An “Exhibit” by definition is a public display. How can history organizations engage their communities in creating exhibits? In planning its latest exhibition, Framingham’s Top 10, the Framingham History Center (FHC) called for community input on important local artifacts via an online vote and public comment period. The results of this process were directly incorporated into the exhibition and have informed future FHC projects and sparked conversation between visitors, staff, and the community at large. Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP) is creating a new exhibit that will tell the stories of diverse cultures and cultural changes that have found their places in Lowell. To tell these stories, LNHP reached out to community members to participate in monthly roundtable discussions, they provide their individual perspectives on the key themes and interpretive framework of the exhibit. Join us to discuss the benefits and lessons learned of community-driven exhibitions in history institutions. Moderator: Jane Becker, University of Massachusetts Boston Presenters: Stacen Goldman, Framingham History Center Bridget Peregrino, Lowell National Historical Park Laura Rankin, Framingham History Center 11:00 – 12:00 RESEARCH AND RECKONING WITH MASSACHUSETTS’ COMPLICITY IN AND RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY In this joint session, Atlantic Black Box founding Director Meadow Dibble will collaborate with Tom Goldscheider of the David Ruggles Center to discuss the importance of community-sourced research and place-based education programs as a means of bringing to light the long-repressed history of Massachusetts' complicity in the business of slavery and in recentering the stories of historical communities of color. Atlantic Black Box is a public history project devoted to researching and reckoning with New England's role in the global economy of enslavement. ABB brings together educators, scholars, artists, activists, and history practitioners to promote community-wide dialogue about this aspect of our past and its connection to our present. At the David Ruggles Center, volunteers interpret the history of the radical abolitionists who formed a utopian community in Northampton in the 1840s. Tom Goldscheider leads walking tours 4 of the village of Florence and hosts visiting school groups, engaging students through an original curriculum that promotes active, hands-on learning. Moderator: Cassandra Peltier Presenter: Meadow Dibble, Atlantic Black Box Tom Goldscheider, David Ruggles Center 11:00 – 12:00 SUPPORTING AND SUSTAINING VOLUNTEERS: FROM ARCHIVAL PROJECTS TO INSTITUTIONAL PROGRAMMING Volunteers are the backbone of most history-based organizations. How are they cultivated and supported on mission driven projects that provide mutual benefit? Representatives from the North Andover Historical Society (NAHS) and the Public Health Museum will share their insights and lessons learned from working with volunteers. NAHS is undergoing a reinvention that will move them toward becoming a vibrant center for community activities. Volunteer support is at the heart of this effort and the challenges are many—finding humanpower for construction and renovation projects, maintaining current operations, and recruiting new volunteers to fulfill administrative, collections, programming, and retail responsibilities. The Public Health