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Natick invited to Race Amity Zoom presentation

January 26, 2021 by Admin Leave a Comment

Natick Race Amity

The Natick Historical Society and the Bacon Free Library will co-host a Zoom presentation of WGBH’s powerful documentary series American Stories: Race Amity and The Other Tradition on Tue., Feb. 2, 6:30pm – 8pm. This presentation will include a brief introduction to the film by Dr. William H. Smith (creator, executive producer, and writer of the series), a reading from the book Race Amity: A Primer on America’s Other Tradition, a viewing of the film Race Amity: America’s Other Tradition, a commentary by Dr. Smith, and a Q&A Session.

WHS Media Productions LLC created this documentary for the promotion of cross-racial and cross-cultural understanding.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Advanced registration is required to access the Zoom link. Please register using the link here, and allow 3-5 days for a confirmation email with the link from the Natick Historical Society.

Filed Under: Bacon Free Library, Community, Education, Embracing diversity, History, Natick Historical Society

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London Harness
Linden Square, Wellesley

Natick Historical Society & Bacon Free Library upcoming events

January 8, 2021 by Admin Leave a Comment

Everyone is welcome to join a virtual discussion of The Nightingale (2018) by Kristin Hannah on Thursday, January 14, 2021, 11am-noon.

The Nightingale

This program is co-sponsored with the Bacon Free Library. It is FREE and open to the public.

If you are interested in joining this virtual book discussion, email: director@natickhistoricalsociety.org.

About The Nightingale

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.


Save the date for Race Amity presentation

Natick Race Amity

The Natick Historical Society and the Bacon Free Library will co-host a Zoom presentation of WGBH’s powerful documentary series American Stories: Race Amity and The Other Tradition on Tue., Feb. 2, 6:30pm – 8pm. This presentation will include a brief introduction to the film by Dr. William H. Smith (creator, executive producer, and writer of the series), a reading from the book Race Amity: A Primer on America’s Other Tradition, a viewing of the film Race Amity: America’s Other Tradition, a commentary by Dr. Smith, and a Q&A Session.

WHS Media Productions LLC created this documentary for the promotion of cross-racial and cross-cultural understanding.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Advanced registration is required to access the Zoom link. Please register using the link here, and allow 3-5 days for a confirmation email with the link from the Natick Historical Society.

Filed Under: Bacon Free Library, Books, Community, Education, Embracing diversity, History, Morse Institute Library, Natick Historical Society

Page Waterman, Wellesley

Natick Town Seal Review Committee members sought

November 30, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

An article calling for the formation of a Town Seal Review Committee flew through Town Meeting earlier this month, and now those interested in being on the committee have been invited to apply.

(If interested, send email to moderator@natickma.org or mail a letter to Town Moderator, 13 East Central St., Natick, MA 01760)

Natick town seal
Natick Town Seal

 

On or about Dec. 21, Town Moderator Frank Foss will begin interviews and then appoint up to seven committee members whose ultimate goal will be to propose a modern seal after studying the history of the town’s seals and involving at least one public meeting. The current seal is seen as being historically inaccurate by its depiction of Rev. John Eliot preaching down to three Native Americans. Eliot settled Natick in collaboration with Indigenous People.

Natick Historical Society has given the soon-to-be-determined committee members a head start on the history of Natick town seals.

town of natick sign

Town Meeting members voted 109 to 4 (with 1 abstention) to form such a committee (discussion at the Town Meeting lasted about 30 minutes, beginning at the 2-hour, 34-minute mark). Natick Nipmuc Indian Council and Natick Interfaith Clergy are among those who have come out in support of the article.

Not only was the article proposed as a way to modernize the seal, but also to see to it that it is consistently applied across town. Town Meeting member Julian Munnich urged the town to be precise in its distinction between the formal seal, used to Town Clark to mark items, and logos, emblems, etc., that might adorn everything from street signs to vehicles to uniforms.

The current seal, approved in 1980, is based on an emblem designed in 1951 for the town’s 300th birthday.

The cost of revamping the seal and replacing it in its many locations is not yet known. But Town Meeting Member and article supporter Josh Ostroff said during Town Meeting that determining cost would be one of the committee’s charges to include in its report.

Natick’s reexamination of its town seal comes at a time when the Commonwealth is reviewing its seal, and other communities such as Newton are doing the same. A mural at Natick’s downtown post office that features an image similar to that on the seal is also being scrutinized, but since that’s in a federal building, that will involve a whole other process for change.

Article 16, Fall 2020 Natick Town Meeting: Review and Revise the Natick Town Seal (Mia Kheyfetz, et al.)

Town Seal Review Committee will have up to seven individuals appointed by the Moderator, said committee to include persons suited to the charge of the committee by their interest and familiarity with history, design, and civic participation, and whose charge shall be to review the history of Town Seals
in Natick; to propose a new Town Seal after a public process that shall include consultation with a diverse group of stakeholders including members of Indigenous communities; to hold at least one public forum; and to provide a report and recommendation to a future Town Meeting that shall consider implementation of a new seal.

Download (PDF, 4.21MB)

Filed Under: Embracing diversity, Government, History

A Native American war veteran’s long journey home to Natick burial ground

November 24, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Many of the facts are murky surrounding Alexander Quapish, a Native American and a Natick American Revolutionary War Veteran, given that he reportedly died at the age of 34 some 243 years ago. But representatives of the Wampanoag Confederacy as well Harvard University museum researchers have pulled enough evidence together to convince Natick officials that what are believed to be the remains of Mr. Quapish should be reinterred at the Natick Praying Indian Burial Ground at 29 1/2 Pond Street.

Natick Praying Indian Burial Ground

The Natick Select Board voted unanimously this week to allow the interment to proceed, pending Board of Health or other approvals. This matter was the only item on the board’s agenda on Nov. 23 during a meeting that lasted just 18 minutes, far shorter than the usual 2-plus hour discussions.

“It’s very fitting that we’re discussing this a few days before Thanksgiving and sitting on land that was of course originally of indigenous people’s origin…,” Select Board member Karen Adelman-Foster said. “I feel like it is an honor to be able to host these remains.”

In a memo shared by the Board citing research summarized in a Federal Register document, what are believed to be Mr. Quapish’s remains were removed from a location in Dedham (where he lived with this wife) and transferred to the Warren Anatomical Museum. There’s some uncertainty whether he was originally buried in Dedham in what’s now Needham, or in Natick, as the Natick Historical Society contends. Historian and author Robert D. Hall has also written of Mr. Quapish and his original burial in Natick, according to his sources.

Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), an inventory of the human remains under the control of the museum, was completed. The Museum determined, “by a preponderance of the evidence,” that the human remains are of the Native American individual Mr. Alexander Quapish. Where no direct lineal descendants can be identified, the remains were repatriated to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), Tribes that represent people of Wampanoag descent.”

Jim Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, said during the Board meeting: “We like to bring our ancestors back to their final resting places as much as possible and having it protected as well so they won’t be disturbed again.”

A date for the burial has not been set. Bettina Washington, tribal historic preservation officer, said it’s unusual to have an identity for a repatriation. “This is never an easy thing to do, but it’s necessary.”

The Select Board agreed.

“Mr. Quapish was not born here apparently, but he did end up here. It sounds like an odyssey of fact finding but there’s also the theme of respect for understanding and trying to find the right final resting place,” Select Board member Michael Hickey said. “So in a way, it seems like there’s an adopted home here in Natick.”

natick praying indian burial ground downtown natick
Monument to Native American veterans of the Revolutionary War, installed in 1900, on Pond Street near Natick Center

Download (PDF, 271KB)

Filed Under: Embracing diversity, Government, History

Natick Historical Society and Bacon Free Library to co-sponsor December book discussion

November 19, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Everyone is welcome to join a virtual discussion of The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore on Thur., Dec. 10, 11am – noon, co-sponsored by the Natick Historical Society and the Bacon Free Library

The Last Days of Night (2017) is  a page-turning historical thriller—based on actual events—about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America. In 1888, the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. Thomas Edison has won the race to the patent office and is suing his only remaining rival, George Westinghouse, for the unheard of sum of one billion dollars. To defend himself, Westinghouse makes a surprising choice in his attorney: He hires an untested twenty-six-year-old fresh out of Columbia Law School named Paul Cravath.

Bacon Free Library, Natick
Bacon Free Library, along with the Natick Historical Society will co-host a virtual book discussion.

The task facing Cravath is beyond daunting. Edison proves to be a formidable, wily, and dangerous opponent. Yet this young, unknown attorney shares with his famous opponent a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it? As he takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.

If you are interested in joining this free and virtual book discussion, please email: director@natickhistoricalsociety.org.

EVENT: Discussion of The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
DATE: Thur., Dec. 10
TIME: 11am – noon


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Filed Under: Bacon Free Library, Books, History, Natick Historical Society

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