Brighton-Allston Heritage Museum
Grand Opening
Saturday Februray 24, 2007
3 - 8 pm
Boston's newest museum will be dedicated and opened on
February 24, 2007 from 3 to 6pm at 20 Chestnut Hill Avenue, just outside of Brighton Center,
to mark the official start of Brighton's year long Bicentennial celebration.
The Brighton-Allston Heritage Museum, being planned and organized by the
Brighton-Allston Historical Society, will be a permanent institution that will
provide creative interpretations of the history on one of Boston's most diverse
and interesting neighborhoods.
The museum will open with two major exhibitions:
A permanent exhibition, in Gallery A, will highlight the
historical themes that have contributed to the varied and rich history of
Brighton and Allston, a community that represents a microcosm of our national
experience.
This exhibition: "Brighton Transformed: From Native
American Settlement to Urban Diversity," mounted in the Museum's larger
gallery, will include historical photographs, artifacts, books, maps, signage,
letters, portraits, interactive web-based stations, oral history stations,
models, dioramas and historical ephemera. Most of the objects on display will
come from the Brighton-Allston Historical Society's own collection.
Gallery A will be organized around six main themes: Early
History, Transportation, Agriculture & Horticulture, Industry &
Commerce, Suburbanization, and Institutional History.
Physical artifacts on display in Gallery A will include an
Ionic capital that once sat atop a column fronting Brighton;s handsome 1841
Greek Revival Town Hall, pieces of Paul Revere pottery, manufactured in
Brighton in the 1916 to 1940 period, and a beautifully crafted sterling silver
trumpet used by Brighton's Fire Chief to direct 19th century fire fighting operations.
Most of the photographs and objects appearing in the Museum
have never before been exhibited.
The Inner Gallery, designated "The Winship Gallery" to
commemorate the family that founded both of Brighton and Allston's signature
industries---the Cattle Trade and Horticulture---and intended to accommodate a
series of rotating exhibits, will house, as its first exhibition a display of
historical material entitled: "Bull Market: the Rise, Prominence and Decline of
New England's Cattle Industry." This exhibition will trace the rise and eventual decline of New England's cattle trade in the
period 1776 to 1960, when Brighton was its most important center. It will
include a multi-media presentation and interactive stations to orient visitors
to the fascinating and little known history of Brighton as "America's first
cattle town." The central motif of
the "Winship Gallery" will be a magnificent portrait of Captain Jonathan
Winship, the son of the founder of the cattle industry and the man who, in
1820, founded the local horticultural industry.
Both exhibition galleries will demonstrate how the events
and personalities of Brighton and Allston's past helped shape the diverse
present-day residential and commercial powerhouse of 70,000 people, home to
major universities, institutions, and corporations. Here first time visitors,
newcomers, and long term residents alike will discover an array of artifacts,
images and voices that will serve to significantly broaden their understanding
both of local and regional history.
To discuss a donation or loan of an historical item related
to Brighton or Allston's history, please email us at bamail@bahistory.org |