January 8, 2009
Annual Report 2008
President’s Report
The Westport Historical Society had a productive year. Our summer show, Winds of Change: Westport’s Hurricanes Revisited, was the best attended exhibit we have ever done, and our new book Images of America: Westport is selling well. (We hope you’ll consider it for holiday gifts!) We carried on our preservation efforts, added to our collection, and delivered an interesting series of programs on Westport’s history. The support of these efforts by the people of Westport has been very gratifying.
I would like to acknowledge the service of Sharon Wypych, who served as Secretary. Her passing is a great loss to the Historical Society. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of two of our long-standing board members, Barbara Moss (Collections) and Jim Panos (Programs), who will be stepping down in October. Their dedication, valued input in board matters, and friendship have been great assets to the society and it has been a pleasure to work with them.
Tony Connors
Director’s Report
Highlights of the past year include:
Images of America: Westport
Our new book of historical images of Westport was published in July. Containing over 200 photographs and postcards of the area, the book provides an engaging introduction to Westport’s history. It also proved to be a successful fundraiser for the Society. Its success is a tribute to the team of authors and advisors who worked on the book and to volunteers who have worked so hard over the past few years to organize our photograph collection. We are very grateful to Partners Village Store for providing a wonderful book signing venue and for selling books on our behalf during that event.
Paintings and Poetry of Mercy Etta Baker
With the purchase of 4 watercolors by local artist Mercy Etta Baker, (funded by a Local Cultural Council Grant), we took the opportunity to display what is now a sizable collection of her work along with many of her poems. We were also pleased to include reproductions of her work held by the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Winds of Change: Westport’s Hurricanes Revisited
We welcomed nearly 800 visitors to our summer exhibition on the hurricanes of 1938 and 1954. Despite the seriousness of the topic, it proved to be an extremely engaging exhibition which focused as much on the pre hurricane landscape of East Beach, West Beach and Westport Harbor as it did on the harrowing destruction of these communities. We were able to display some very unusual lost and found items and record some new accounts of the hurricanes. Special thanks to Anna Duphiney for her assistance manning the exhibition. This exhibition was supported by the Westport Cultural Council through a grant from the Helen E. Ellis Charitable Trust administered by Bank of America.
A Perilous Life Online exhibition
Westport Historical Society developed an exciting new online resource featuring images, stories, letters, first hand accounts of Westporters involved in whaling activities. Highlights include newspaper accounts of cannibalism, letters written to and from Westporters at sea, descriptions of ship building activities at the Head of Westport and at the Point, images of whaling masters and whaling ships. Our thanks to Greg Stone for developing this website which can be viewed at www.westporthistory.com/whaling. This project was supported by the Westport Cultural Council through a grant from the Helen E. Ellis Charitable Trust administered by Bank of America.
Other activities included ongoing monitoring of the storage environment for our collections. This year we were lucky to receive dataloggers from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners which will in turn provide us with concrete data to plan further improvements to storage. Productivity was improved considerably with the donation of funds from members of the class of 1955 towards the purchase of a new computer. We hope to repay them by preserving the history of the class of 1955 as part of our collection. Once again, Westport 3rd grade visited the Bell School, and with the help of Tony Connors, we were able to give them a greater understanding of Westport’s unique history. My thanks also go to Peggy Cornell for her regular assistance with mailings and Lees tapes.
Jenny O’Neill
Collections Committee
Once again we thank our hard working team of volunteers: Suzanne Palmer, Ingrid Davidge, Anna Duphiney, Valerie Tripp Gordon, Eileen Flaherty, Sybil Burda and Rebeca Romero-Alvarez. They have given us at least 600 hours of recorded volunteer time, many more hours unrecorded. We have also been exceptionally lucky to have received a grant from Mass Humanities to fund a survey of our clothing/textiles collection by consultant Blair Walker.
This year we received 114 new acquisitions, a total of 1287 individual items. A few were purchases but most were donations. Early on we received a lovely wedding dress and its silk plush jacket from Walter and Glenda Broadbent. Some of the more unusual, but historically significant, items were a light bulb that burned for 67 years at the Acheson home, a pair of antique marbles, and a school hand-bell. Because of our hurricane theme for the summer exhibit we received many pictures and accounts of the hurricane experiences of our residents. We thank you all for contributing to the success of our great summer exhibit. We added several more issues of “The Brownie” to our collection. Purchases include: five Sanborn fire insurance maps of Westport 1933, 2 watercolor paintings by Mary Hicks Brown, 4 watercolor paintings by Mercy Etta Baker, the collection of her poems titled The White Elephant Sale: A Collection of Previously Used Verse, and the important addition to our Cuffe collection of The Non-Slaveholder Volume 5 (This had once belonged to Mr. Bowditch, a Boston Abolitionist and contains a silhouette of Paul Cuffe). These are just some of this year’s acquisitions. We have thanked the recent donors in the each edition of the Harbinger.
Currently our PastPerfect local history database holds records and digitized images of 3372 photographs, 2087 archives, 1460 objects, and 325 books. We are excited to announce that this database will be online next year, fully searchable and accessible to the local and global community!
Barbara Moss
Programs Committee
Although we presented programs on a variety of themes, our focus this year was on the history of Westport’s many churches. Our thanks go to all the churches that participated and to those who contributed information and personal memories as part of these programs. We continue to videotape all programs with the assistance of Betty Slade and staff from Westport Public Access channel and to show them on Channel 17. Warm thanks go to Debbie Paulo and our director Jenny O’Neill for their efficient and capable support in making each presentation successful. Our thanks also to Lees Market for providing a comfortable venue and donating refreshments for many of our programs.
Programs for the past year include:
The Waite-Potter House with Pete Baker
Kate Cory, the Woman and the Whaleship with Bob Kugler
A History of Westport United Congregational Church with Rev. Sue Moenius
Old and New: Combining the Best of Internet and Traditional Research with Rhonda McClure
A History of the Calvary Bible Church with Pastor Jared Heatherly
A History of Pacific Union Congregational Church with Rev. Nathan Hall
Hurricanes of 1938 and 1954 with Dr. Edward Minsinger
A History of St. John the Baptist Church with Father Leonard Hindsley
Perry Davis’ Painkiller with Tony Connors
Friends and Relations: Quaker Witness in Early Westport and Dartmouth with Elizabeth Cazden
A History of Westport Point United Methodist Church with Pastor Katherine Mitchell
Jim Panos
Membership
447 members in total
36 new members
Life 6, Charter 5, Sustaining 35, Contributing 79, Family 143, Individual 178
Oral History Committee
Betty Slade interviewed the following people as part of our ongoing oral history program:
Jim White: Mover of Buildings 1954-1984 with Frances White and Russ Hart
Glenda Broadbent, Shirley Taber, Pastor Katherine Mitchell on history of Westport Point United Methodist Church
Alice May and Larry Laverge
David and Thelma Smith, Elvira Smith and Cukie Macomber
Gladys Legasse and Michelle Sylvia
Charlotte Fitch
Additionally Westport Historical Society continues to archive interviews and events of more current topics.
Betty Slade
The Harbinger
This year we expanded the number of pages, introduced a larger font size and made overall changes to make the Harbinger easier to read. The Harbinger continued to report to our membership the happenings within the Westport Historical Society as well as those important historical events that occurred in the town. The Harbinger has become a mainstay of our public relations programs. The purpose of the Harbinger is four-fold:
1. Create an awareness of the WHS throughout our community.
2. Present WHS positions on important historical events in town
3. Report on WHS events and happenings
4. Recruit new members
Free point-of-purchase distribution of the Harbinger throughout several businesses and organizations in town has increased an awareness of our Society and has resulted in new memberships.
Jon Alden