Sharon Historical Society welcomes new executive director

SHARON — Having worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Park Avenue Armory and The Frick Collection, how does Abbey Nova, the new Executive Director of the Sharon Historical Society and Museum like leading a smaller museum?

“I love the work, the people, and learning about the beautiful place we live in, its history and its present.” She does not see the Museum as small.

“I’ve always been interested in the history of objects.” She said that the work “dovetails” her interests and experience.

Projects were underway in rooms throughout the Museum.

Board members BZ Coords and Eileen Tedesco examined a clear glass decanter as they cataloged the seven thousand items in the historical society’s collection of maps, paintings, photographs, baskets, letters, journals, ledgers, clothing and textiles, tools, glassware, ceramics and other things brought together from Sharon’s past.

A love of historical objects came to Nova from childhood. She grew up in a farmhouse built in the 1770’s in Putney, Vermont. There was an old trash dump in the woods behind her house. “My sister and I would excavate.”

“In the summer when my mother was teaching, my father would take us to all the small museums in the area.” Both of her parents are teachers.

Her love of history and objects grew as she went on to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in History from Dartmouth and a Master of Arts in the History of Decorative Arts and Design from Parsons School of Design in conjunction with the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

“I want to excite people and bring history alive. I want this to be a place where people come to learn,” she said.

Cooper Sheldon, the Museum’s curator, was working on a diorama which will recreate Sharon in miniature, painstakingly creating past and present buildings to scale with the help of old documents and new technologies.

In another room, volunteer Diane Monroe was transcribing the tiny, cursive handwriting in the journals of her grandfather, James Wilbur.

Upstairs, project manager Myra Plescia worked through scrapbooks of the eminent Buckley family from boxes holding the Museum’s Buckley Collection.

Plans are in the works for next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The exhibit will focus on “what was happening in Sharon and in the larger world in 1776, 1876 and 1976.” Nova said.

There will be a smaller exhibit about the Gay-Hoyt House, which was built in 1775 and now houses the Museum.

Sheldon is working on the Museum’s “maker space.” The goal is to “have kids and adults interact with history on a personal level,” said Sheldon.

Nova has launched the Sharon Historical Club, which meets on the third Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. around subjects that provide windows to the past.

Another project Nova described is a collaboration with historical societies in towns throughout the region to create a driving-map that connects the iron industry and other historical organizations.

For more info on events and exhibits at the Sharon Historical Society and Museum go to sharonhist.org