Own Something Important to the Town’s History? Donate It to the Taft Museum!
Recently, George Whiting, son of Warren Whiting, donated a baseball uniform his father wore on the Farmers community baseball team to the Bellingham Taft Historical Museum. If you have a historical artifact you’d like to donate, visit the donation form on the Historical Museum page on the Bellingham town website.
Bellingham Taft Historical museum is open by appointment and accepting applications for donations of historical significance to Bellingham
Bellingham’s Memorial Day ceremonies coincided with the grand reopening of the historical museum. Visitors throughout the afternoon came through the doors of the newly reorganized building and found displays that offered information helping to tell the story of our community. Throughout the summer the museum will be open by appointment, and by late summer will the Historical Commission will announce public hours for the fall.
The pandemic of 2020 and beyond created an opportunity to examine Bellingham’s historical museum and reevaluate the contents stored within it. The former town library building was way overdue for modernization. Countless hours were spent improving access, installing new flooring and effective air conditioning, moving materials (repeatedly!) and reorganizing existing holdings.
The historical commission worked closely with town officials to sort through boxes of documents and items that had been deemed historical. Monetary gifts from the community made possible a number of purchases that enhanced the display of items, including mannequins to display military uniforms from different eras, children’s clothing,
Most recently, the museum added to its collection a baseball uniform (shirt and hat) from the Farmers community baseball team, worn by Warren Whiting. Whiting’s son, George Whiting, visited the museum to present the museum with his father’s baseball uniform. While at the museum, George, now ninety-eight, related stories of the playful antics that took place on the field as the Farmers challenged the Woonsocket Call team. This yearly event predictably resulted in the Farmers being soundly trounced by the Woonsocket team.
The Historical Commission welcomes donations that will assist in fleshing out the events, the people and the stories that have made Bellingham the community it is today. Do YOU have something of historical significance that you would like to donate to the museum? If so, please complete an Artifact/Material Donation Application Form https://www.bellinghamma.org/historical-commission
and return it to us and the Commission will consider your donation at our next meeting.
-Marjorie Turner Hollman, member of the Bellingham Historical Commission
(Donation request form in the https address listed above)
