WORCESTER—The Worcester Historical Museum is celebrating its past with a look back on its 150-year history and honoring its future with a new name—Museum of Worcester.
The museum turned 150 years old on Thursday and donors celebrated the milestone that night.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, the museum will hold a free open house for the public at its facility at 30 Elm St. Visitors can view the upgraded Fuller Gallery of Industrial History with interactive exhibits and the redesigned lobby and gift shop. Donations of $1.3 million paid for the renovations.
The new name was announced at a press conference at the museum on Friday.
“I think the new name is perfect,” Executive Director William Wallace said. “It’s the Museum of Worcester, it’s the family album. This is our common shared story. It’s not a dusty, old museum that you could go to in another town. This is a participatory space for everyone in Worcester because it’s our stories.”
Barbara Guertin, chief operating officer, said the museum wanted a name that represented a fresh, new look. She pointed out that the New York Historical Society museum also changed its name last October to the New York Historical, dropping Society.
‘We decided we’re not just about history here,” Guertin said. “We’re about telling the Worcester story and these are the stories we tell. So we took history out of the title. This museum is culture, it’s art, it’s industry. That’s what Worcester is.”
Wallace, 76, said the museum’s staff and board members worked with volunteers to develop the new name.
“There were lots of possibilities,” he said, “the agreement was just to go straight forward. It’s the Museum of Worcester.”
In 1875, the year before the country celebrated the centennial, Samuel Staples founded the museum, called the Worcester Society of Antiquity, in rented rooms in the Worcester National Bank Building at 11 Foster St. Staples owned the grocery store on the corner of Main and Franklin streets and invited friends to help him start the museum.
In 1892, the museum moved to 39 Salisbury St., now known as Grove Street, on land donated by Stephen Salisbury III. The name was changed to the Worcester Historical Society in 1919 and to the Worcester Historical Museum in 1978. In 1988, the museum moved to its present location, a larger building which had been constructed for the Worcester County Historical Society.
Wallace has seen a lot of changes in the museum since he became executive director in 1976.
“It’s become much more participatory,” he said. “It’s an expanded collection and there’s conversations with these communities that make Worcester and bring them into the story. We’re not waiting for stuff to come to the door, we’re going out and being more aggressive.”
At the open house from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday, visitors can explore the museum and galleries.
The new Fuller Gallery of Industrial History features historic touch screens and exhibits ranging from the pre-1830s through today.
A history of candlepin bowling, which was invented in Worcester in 1880, is presented in the Booth Gallery. The Chin Family of Worcester, an exhibit about the first Chinese family to settle in Worcester, is on display at the Rockwell Gallery.
At the open house, actors will portray notable people from Worcester’s past. From 10 a.m. until noon, Staples will greet visitors in the redesigned lobby, Stephen Salisbury I and Elizabeth Tuckerman Salisbury will be at the Alden Gallery-Salisbury Store, and Abby Kelley Foster will be in the Abby Kelley Foster Library with her recently transcribed letters.
From 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., visitors can hear bicycle tales from Major Taylor at the Alden Gallery-City Square and make Valentines with Esther Howland, who popularized the Valentine’s Day card, in the second floor conference room.
From noon until 2 p.m., Frances Perkins, the first woman cabinet member and secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, will be portrayed at the Alden Gallery-Factory and a 19th century cake making demonstration will take place at the Fletcher Auditorium. From 1-3 p.m., to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year and the exhibit, “The Chin Family of Worcester,” visitors can learn how to write Chinese characters with faculty and staff from the College of the Holy Cross.
From 2-4 p.m., veteran local jazz pianist and vocalist Nat Needle will perform Worcester songs and more at the Fletcher Auditorium.
Attendance at the museum dipped during the height of the pandemic, but has since recovered. For the fiscal year from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, attendance was 16,744, including 12,522 on site, 3,910 at events in the community and 312 members. Nevertheless, the museum staff realizes that some Worcesterites don’t know the facility exists.
“We are going to be more aggressive this year,” Wallace said, “about sharing who we are, what we do and expand that messaging of Museum of Worcester. You are all welcome and you need to come.”
The Latino History of Worcester exhibit was a popular attraction last year.
The museum will offer free admission for the next year thanks to a gift from the McDonough Family Charitable Fund. Admission is usually $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students and free for members and anyone under 18. The museum is open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and from 10 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. the fourth Thursday of each month. Free parking is available off Chestnut Street behind the museum and the parking lot will be expanded this spring.
The Worcester Women’s History Project at the Museum of Worcester will kick off a year-long film and speaker program at the Park View Room at 230 Park Ave. to celebrate the 1850 Women’s Rights Convention held in Worcester. The first program will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6:30 p.m. and feature the 2023 film about the American women’s fight to vote, “The Vote, Park One.” Author Tina Cassidy speaks and Charlotte Haller, Worcester State University professor and chair of the department of history and political science, will serve as moderator.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
