This week we have a short podcast on the Annual Christmas Parade, which happened yesterday.
(I was hoping to have a little bit of audio from the parade, but I managed to mess that up.)
Happy Holidays!
The podcast mentions “Leapin’ Lena” – a modified 1927 Model T that was a fixture at Maynard parades for nearly 70 years.
Here are some scenes from the 2008 parade – you can click on the photos to see larger versions of them. A full gallery of photos from this year’s parade can be found here.
We continue to make excellent progress with our initial organization of the collection.
We’ve now looked into just about every box and have marked them accordingly with their contents. All the boxes are in the correct rooms. This is important because we found a lot of boxes containing items that the Society has for sale, file folders, and other items that aren’t part of the collection. Getting them into their own room gives one a much better sense of what lies ahead.
We found 5 more boxes of town reports and perhaps a box worth of Screech Owls. Next week we’ll likely go through the umpteen boxes of these that we have and sort them by date and condition. Then we can put the unneeded duplicates aside and we’ll figure out what to do with them later.
My thanks to Peg Brown, Ellen Duggan, and Jack MacKeen for putting in some time these past few weeks. It’s really remarkable to see how much progress we make by chipping away at this by dedicating just a few hours each week.
As always, if you would like to join us — we’re there pretty much every Wednesday morning from about 9am to 11 (or noon at the latest) — please stop by. If you send me your email address I typically send out reminders and, more importantly, cancellations or tardy notes.
In this podcast we provide an update on the collection cataloging and survey project. As part of going through the documents we uncovered some books that we think will be very valuable to those interested in family histories in Maynard.
Listen to the podcast:
Maynard Historical Society Podcast #3
Here are some photographs associated with the podcast. You can click on any of the photographs to view a larger version.
Here are the slides from Roy Helander’s presentation on Maynard’s Finnish Temperance Society, “Alku”. The slides include the timeline Roy talked about and the numerous photographs from source materials.
The slides are in PDF format which requires the Adobe PDF reader.
After a short update on the Society’s collection, Roy Helander will recount the chronology of Alku, Maynard’s Finnish Temperance Society.
Before the rise of mass media, groups like the temperance societies formed the base of social life with meetings, activities, sports events, talks, drama groups, music.
We hope you can join us at the Library in the Fowler School, 3 Tiger Drive (off of Great Road / Rt. 117). The Library is located down the hall to the right as you come in the main entrance.
Cindy Mello is writing a research paper and would like some help. She writes:
I’m doing a research paper for a business college class that’s due in two weeks and I could use your assistance. The paper is entitiled “The Evolution of the Maynard Mill and It’s Impact on the Town”. In addition to the history that’s on your website I need information from book, magazine and interview sources. I love discussing history with the most senior of the town, so please point me in the direction of those that would be willing to speak with me and any additional resources you think would be useful, especially from your archive room. In addition to my contact information below, I’ve listed some key reference items that I could use your assistance with gathering. Thank you in advance for your help.
Cindy is seeking:
If you are a member of the Maynard Historical Society you should have received (or will shortly receive) issue #45 of Maynard Memories, our newsletter edited by Nancy Wasiuk.
This newsletter features a story written by Society members David Mark and Jean D’Amico who live at 10 Maple Street and chronicle the history of their home and the seven other families that have lived there since it was built in the 1870’s. They did some great research and put together a wonderful story.
Bill Wickey also submitted a short article recalling Maynard in the 1940’s.
Maynard Memories is one of the benefits of membership in the Society. If you are not a member, please consider joining. If you are a member (and even if you aren’t) and have a story to tell about Maynard’s History — or just a memory about growing up or living in Maynard — please consider writing a short article for the newsletter. We’d love to hear from you.
We are pleased to publish our second podcast featuring some audio recordings in our collection.
20 years ago this month, November 1998, the Society hosted a program entitled “An Evening with Frank Mark and Roy Helander”.
Frank immigrated to Maynard from Finland in 1916 (at the age of 15). After moving here he worked in the Union Co-op Bakery. Roy interviews Frank, who retells a number of amusing and interesting tales of life in Maynard in the first half of the 20th century.
Frank was related to a Maynard historical icon, Waino Kauppi, who was a world-renown coronet player. Stories about Waino along with a short recording of one of his performances rounds out Mr. Mark’s interview.
Roy’s uncle, Ed Helander, who was 95 at the time, grew up in the same town in Finland as Mr. Mark. Due to the bad weather, Ed could not attend the meeting but provided Roy with a number of written stories that Roy relayed to the audience.
Running time is just under 1 hour. The podcast is audio-only and should be playable by just about any computer.
Click here to listen to the Maynard Historical Society Podcast #2.
If you had problems playing Podcast #1 we’ve published an audio-only version that should be playable just about anywhere.
Roy Helander will present a history of the Finnish Temperance Society, “Alku”, which was organized in Maynard from 1895 to 1967. It was one of about 50 Temperance Societies that were formed in New England.
Perhaps the earliest photo we have of some of the members of the Society circa 1908:
In May of 1922 Alku decided to purchase some land in West Concord to create a summer recreation site called Punkaharju:
Each summer Alku members would parade down Powdermill Road (now Rt. 62) to West Concord:
Some Alku members from 1912:
We hope you can join us and learn more about Alku and temperance societies in New England and how they shaped life here in Maynard for over a half a century.