November 2024
We have written five grants on behalf of the French Cable Station Museum, one of Orlean's most significant historic landmarks. This building is an authentic undersea telegraph station. It houses one of the world's largest collections of undersea telegraphy equipment. A cable nearly 3200 miles long ran directly from Orleans to Brest, France. The station closed in 1959. A small group of Orleans citizens managed to purchase the station and all of its contents from the French government in 1972. The museum is run entirely by volunteers who provide guided tours during the summer season. The museum celebrated the 50th anniversary of it's establishment in summer 2022. Additional volunteers are always needed! Click here to contact Joe Manas, museum President.
(Read more here)
The Town of Orleans Community Preservation Committee has provided nearly $200K to fund much of the work done by us (and other outside contractors) from 2019 to 2024. This includes new HVAC systems, updated electrical wiring, window restoration, mold remediation, creation of an online database (with photos of equipment and artifacts), restoration of photographs and documents, and the conversion of a room in the basement into a library for storing and researching the historic documents. This year, much needed restoration work to the exterior of the building was completed, thanks to the CPC.
In 2022 we were contracted to provide archiving services for "The CHO", formerly known as the Orleans Historical Society. Although we did not write this grant...this important work has also been funded by the Orleans Community Preservation Committee.
The CHO has a vast collection of all kinds of artifacts reflecting the history of the town, and the people whom have lived and worked in Orleans over the centuries. They have recently built a new repository for the collection. Our work is to organize the new space, photograph and archivally preserve artifacts, and update their collection database. Here is a link to their website. orleanshistoricalsociety.org
Feb. 8, 2018....One mission accomplished!
In 2007, a collaboration was formed with photographer Rowland Scherman, Bob Korn Imaging, Inc. and Dave & Meri Hartford of Artworks! - all from Orleans, Massachusetts. The Rowland Scherman Project was established to catalog, digitally scan & print for exhibition, forty plus years of Mr. Scherman's life work.
The following statement was taken from one of the first posters we produced back in 2007:
“Rowland’s collection of historically significant portraits should be preserved and shared. Our goals are to produce selected images for sale, produce exhibits of his framed images to venues beyond our gallery / studio, and obtain public recognition for Rowland Scherman’s incredible life’s work behind the camera.”
Now, as a result of over 15 years of work, we have achieved those goals. Mr. Scherman is no longer an obscure, unknown photographer. His work has been seen by literally thousands of people at over 30 venues & people from all over the world have visited the website we produced. He has had numerous speaking engagements, radio and television interviews, and his work has been used as part of the curriculum at a university. His collection has become sought after, and has been acquired by U. Mass. Amherst. http://credo.library.umass.edu/