Marlow Historical Society Minutes - August 2011

Executive Board Minutes
Marlow Historical Society
Chapel: 6:30 PM
August 4, 2011


Present: Maria Baril (for the beginning), Loisanne Foster, Johanna Kent, and Joanne Thomas


Loisanne read the Secretary’s Report from July. It was accepted as read.

We reviewed and accepted the Treasurer’s Report as written. We currently have $13,127.93 in our account of which approximately $9,800.00 from special contributions, is designated for our 250th Anniversary Tinshop Pond Fence Restoration Project.

Old Business


Joanne will order the quilt boxes we had agreed on earlier.

Maria has the extra community pictures. Only one needs to be mailed.

Johanna will check with Pat Strickland for catalogs and on line to research prices for racks to hold the binders and booklets that Loisanne assembled.

Joanne suggested that our next archival project should be indexing the Audrey Benson Scrapbook copy and that we solicit some reliable, methodical people to do this exacting work.

We decided to make a survey of the C.A.L.L. class we will conduct in November to discover what they would like to learn about Marlow’s history.

We will put out more Marlow history books at the library and have some available at the museum for our visitors.

The company we chose for the Tinshop Fence Restoration insisted on changing the specifications after we had chosen them to do the work. They wanted to change the materials and other important items, so the Tinshop Fence Committee will meet again and decide which contractor to choose.

New Business

We will assemble a small collection of MHS merchandise to be available to visitors at the museum during Sunday hours.

We will have new membership applications available at the museum.

Loisanne will make more bookmarks and a handout containing all our contact information to have available at the museum.

Joanne suggested that we seek a long, narrow table for the museum for the ease of people looking at the binders and also for those working on archival projects.

Our archivists will be opening the trunk of antique Marlow clothes donated by Geri Plotts. At that point we will need more archival storage boxes and more mannequins. We also need to study procedures for dealing with old textiles.

We voted unanimously to purchase a scanner to go with the computer and printer that Ed Thomas donated.

We will refurbish the labels of all the exhibits in the museum Joanne Thomas has already scanned and saved the duplicates of those labels which are in our files.

To practice good stewardship of our artifacts, we need a simple accession form.

For the fall NH Humanities Council Program, Runaway Wives by Marcia Schmidt Blaine, we debated the location, Odd Fellows Hall, Perkins School, or Jones Hall and chose Jones Hall. We also discussed the possibility of having a potluck supper before the speaker, but we decided on having “pot luck desserts.” We will ask a subcommittee to be in charge of that aspect.

Since Marcia Schmidt Blaine comes from Plymouth, we will need to provide her with dinner and possibly overnight accommodation. Joanne Thomas will host the speaker at her home.

For this NHHC event, we should do publicity one month out which will be in late September.

Knowing that the Church is looking for a fundraiser, we conceived the idea that perhaps they would like to put on a dinner the same evening as a general and/or public MHS meeting. This might enhance attendance at both events.

The 250th Birthday Celebration Committee is giving to MHS the profits from the sale of the community picture taken by Ed Thomas. We will make about $6.00 each. Ed Thomas is not taking any profit from the sale.

We voted to turn down David Mc Lanahan’s offer to involve MHS in the publication of his Marlow photographs as prints and cards and their sale at regional shops. We have too much on our plate right now to involve MHS in the complexities of a business venture. We appreciate the offer and plan to continue to offer the card copies we have already made at Marlow events.

Bruce Bellows of Alstead will donate a wooden sap bucket to MHS.

Peter Eisenstadter has donated a sign from Marlow’s Bicentennial in 1961.

Respectfully submitted,
Loisanne Foster
Secretary, MHS