GREENFIELD — If you’re into local history, then a new online database from the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage will be for you.
The Franklin County-based Museum of Our Industrial Heritage on Mead Street is debuting its new local historical online database Saturday. The database will provide access to the county’s industrial history for researchers and history buffs alike.
The database will be first unveiled as part of an event at the museum at 2 p.m. The event is free to the public and will include light refreshments.
“We’re trying to become a major repository of local area history, collecting together the jigsaw pieces,” Ed Gregory, presenter during Saturday’s event, said.
According to Gregory, the website will provide free content on local history, and he hopes that Saturday’s presentation will also draw interest from those who have artifacts or other items of historical interest of the area.
The database will feature several artifacts of local industry, including over 250 photographs from Greenfield Tap and Die Corporation, ranging from World War I to the 1960s.
A large collection of photographs and other artifacts of Franklin County industry from the Griswold/Kendall Mills Collection, begun by Colrain-based businessman and Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Griswold.
A collection of over 400 letters written by John Keith, a prominent businessman of the late 1800s and creator of the Turners Falls-based Keith Paper Company.
Gregory said that those with historical items of their own can share them with the museum, who can then either scan, photograph or otherwise catalogue what they have. According to Gregory, the items do not have to be about just industrial history of the area, but can be about anything related to Franklin County history.
For more information and to contact the museum, visit www.industrialhistory.org or follow the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage on Facebook.
You can reach Dan Desrochers at:
ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257