Community Preservation Act grant activity

 

Meeting House Museum Storm Window Replacment, 2013

The 20 over 20 original wood windows on the Meeting House Museum date back to the 1830s when the building was first constructed as the Universalist Meeting House. Improved storm window construction will help protect the windows against the persistant maritime environment and offer added insulation to the interior.

 

 

Archival Digitization and Preservation, 2010 - 2013

The OHS is the Town of Orleans largest repository of cultural artifacts, historic phtographs and archival records.
Preserving, digitizing and archiving is expected to take three years, 2010 - 2013. The Orleans Community Preservation Committee has granted funding for this project. Additional support for this project has come from the Hess and Helyn Kline Foundation. 
View a recently conserved manuscript from 1781! >> [LINK TO Community Preservation Act grant activity PAGE]

 

Motor Lifeboat CG36500 Restoration

Extensive restoration to the famous Gold Medal boat made famous by its crew of four in the February 18th, 1952 rescue of 32 survivors of the ill-fated tanker Pendleton, during a tremendous 70 knot northeasterly storm. Additional funding for this project came from the Brotherton Charitable Foundation.
Visit the CG36500 website to learn more... [LINK TO CG36500]

 

Meeting House Musuem Electrical Upgrades Part I and II

Electrical upgrades to comply with current standards for the 1830s Meeting House Museum building.

 

Video Project, "In Those Days, Orleans Video Histories"

Video interviews created by Tom Cronin in the 1980's - 1990's, will be edited and reformatted to DVD. The interviews are with Orleans people speaking about fishing, art, business and local lore. The final videos will be shown on public access television and and are available for purchase at the Society Museum. 
Additional funding has come from the American Heritage Realty Company [LINK TO http://www.capecodoceanviewrealty.com/capecodrealestate].
View our short promo video > > [LINK TO Orleans Video History Collection PAGE - we have image of that old page, has YouTube video, image of man at Kent's point or similar area]
Click here to view the list of segment titles > > [LINK also goes to same video, but probably should link to something else]
Click here to purchase DVDs of these wonderful interviews > > [LINK TO STORE]

 

Orleans Town Ledgers, late 1800's through early 1900's

These 40 ledgers contain wonderful information about Orleans past. Property values, acreage, livestock, houses, autos, etc. The books were cleaned of loose dirt and mold, after which each page was be digitally photographed and filed for digital research retrieval. The ledgers are stored and available upon request.

 

Glass Plate Negative Project, 2006

211 glass plate negatives found in a local attic were given to the Orleans Historical Society in the autumn of 2005. The photographer Harry J. Sparrow resided in Orleans as a young man, took these images in the early spring of 1911. With funds from the Community Preservation Act the collection has been preserved through digital scanning and archiving, and the original plates safely stored. The digital images are available for viewing and research through several venues, including the 'collections' [LINK TO ONLINE COLLECTIONS PAGE] page of this website.

 

Orleans Oral Histories

More than 75 oral histories recorded by Orleans citizens from 1980 to the present have been transferred to audio CD's for a more stable storage format, and the digital audio files can now be used for listening playback in multiple ways. The transcripts have been entered into word processing files and are available for reading and research.
Listen to a few histories on our 'collections' page!.

 

Meeting House Museum New Roof

The roof was long overdue for replacement and suffered added damage in the famous December 9th storm of 2005. The work was done using historically acurate wooden shingles rather than the current asphalt shingles. This project enhances the overall condition and beauty of this charming building which dates from the 1830's.

 

Preservation of Artifacts and Books

A new tempered glass cover over the Bicentennial Quilt display was installed by Cape & Islands Glass. 
Two 19th century samplers were cleaned, restored and framed with museum glass by Museum Textile Services of Andover, MA.
A volume series The Acts and Resolves of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, were cleaned and rebound with leather by Talin Bookbindery in Yarmouthport. [Acts and Resolves is underlined and looks like it should link, but it does not link on old page]