Lecture Series

“COLLECTIONS”

Objects We Collect & Conceptual Collections

                     Please note the day, date, time, and location of each program.
Programs open to the public with a $5 entry fee. Free for all members of the Arlington Historical Society.

One of 42 blocks in a quilt design called “Courthouse Steps.” This quilt in the Society’s collection dates from the late 1800s. The red square in the center symbolizes the fireplace hearth of a home.

 Tuesday, November 7, 2023
7:30 p.m. at the Arlington Historical Society
CARING FOR YOUR COLLECTIONS
Sara Lundberg
What do you collect? Are you the keeper of some family heirlooms? How do you properly care for them? Learn techniques that museum professionals use to care for their collections, and how to follow these practices for items of your own. This lecture is a crash course in preventative conservation: what materials are safe to use, how to protect your collection from destructive threats, and—most importantly—what NOT to do. All manner of items will be discussed: documents, photos, albums, clothing. etc.

Sign-up by email or telephone to join one of the brief pre-program behind-the-scenes small-group tours of the redesigned Collection area, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023
7:30 p.m. at the Masonic Temple, 19 Academy St.
THE ART AND CRAFT OF QUILTING
Nancy Howard and Julie McDaniel

Quilters make quilts, build their own collections, contribute their handiwork to good causes, and preserve treasured quilts from earlier generations.  Gain insights into designs and techniques through the ages.

Sunday, January 28, 2024
2:00 p.m. at the Arlington Historical Society
ESPECIALLY ON VIEW, FOR YOU!
During our annual “at-home” January afternoon event in the Smith Museum, some seldom-seen objects from our own collection will be displayed and discussed by staff and volunteers of the Society. 

Arlington Gas Light Company (1914)
A National Register Success Story

Wednesdays, February 14 & 28, 2024
1:00 p.m. at the Arlington Historical Society
“WINTER WEDNESDAYS”

Wednesday, February 14:  ARLINGTON’S HISTORICAL MUNICIPAL EDIFICES: WHAT’S BEING PLANNED TO PRESERVE THEM?
Jim Feeney, Town Manager

Wednesday, February 28:  MENOTOMY’S REV. SAMUEL COOKE AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY
Doreen Stevens

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
7:30 p.m. at the Masonic Temple
OUR PUBLIC MEMORIALS
A. Michael Ruderman
Consider Arlington’s parks, streets, schools, and other named places in town. They’re the collection of our most visible history. They write a story of our past and define our present Arlington. Who are we then, and who have we honored? What part of ourselves do we memorialize, and what parts have we missed?

Arlington Centre Railroad Station c.1915
(Robbins Library Collection)

Tuesday, April 30, 2024
7:30 p.m. at the Masonic Temple
PLAYING WITH TRAINS: A HISTORY OF MODEL RAILROADING  
Stuart Brorson
Many of us will recall that special Christmas when Santa brought a model train and left it under the tree.  Where did that tradition come from?  Hear the history of model railroading, from its 19th century origins in Southern Germany through the transition from “tinplate” toys to “scale models” in the 1920s and 1930s, to its status today as a hobby enjoyed by millions of adults (and children) worldwide.

Front door window sign displayed in Arlington homes to promote fair housing as a civil right.
(Robbins Library Collection.)

Tuesday, May 28, 2024
7:30 p.m. at Arlington Town Hall
Louise Ruma Ivers Memorial Lecture
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN ARLINGTON: BASED ON THE LENORE & HOWARD WINKLER COLLECTION
Richard A. Duffy
Co-sponsored by the
Arlington Human Rights Commission
This capstone of the “Collections” theme of the program season will feature authentic documents beginning in the 1960s, preserved and curated by active leaders in bringing the principles of the national civil rights movement into specific actions in Arlington. They are windows into the concept of “think globally, act locally.”

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