The History of Oblong Road
Oblong Road was one of the earliest parts of Williamstown to be settled, and is the focus of Dustin Griffin’s latest lecture for the museum. Please join us on Saturday, April 17, at 11 a.m. for an online lecture, “The History of Oblong Road.”
Read MoreWHM’s Late Winter 2021 Newsletter
Please enjoy the latest, refreshed edition of WHM’s newsletter! Within it you will find: An article about the first Williamstown summer theater, which preceded the Williamstown Theater Festival by almost 20 years An article about the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and Williamstown’s 1965 Bicentennial An article previewing Patricia Leach’s upcoming lecture on Williamstown’s meetinghouses Information about other upcoming lectures, like Christine DeLucia’s on the meaning of local place names Books on local history available for sale through the WHM… and...
Read MoreWilliamstown’s First Meetinghouse
By Patricia Leach This article was published in our Winter 2021 newsletter. Read more of the newsletter here. In 1765, at the incorporation of our town as “Williams Town,” there was not a true meetinghouse, per se. Services featuring our newly settled minister, Yale graduate Whitman Welch, were held in the young settlement’s log schoolhouse. But soon, as early as 1766, the need for a dedicated meetinghouse was realized. Although it was not an expensive project—its cost was approximately $600 and many white oak trees, a primary building material, were available nearby—construction went...
Read MoreMany Stories in the Land: Revisiting “Williamstown” and its Meanings
View a video of Chrisine DeLucia’s lecture that offers possibilities for critically rethinking both history and geography and their enduring meanings by clicking the “Read More” tab.
Read MoreAnother Look at the 1965 Bicentennial
By Kendall McGowan This article was published in our Winter 2021 newsletter. Read more of the newsletter here. As an intern getting my first experience in cataloging with the WHM this winter, I was hoping to encounter surprises in the archives. Almost immediately, I struck upon a small mystery. It came in the form of photos of Williamstown’s bicentennial, celebrated by residents in 1965, to commemorate the town’s incorporation, which included acquiring its current name. The bicentennial planning committee arranged a number of activities, including parades, shows, and historical...
Read MoreThe First Williamstown Summer Theater
By Dustin Griffin This article was published in part in our Winter 2021 newsletter. Read more of the newsletter here. Most people know that the Williamstown Theatre Festival, formerly called the Williamstown Summer Theatre, was founded in 1955. But few probably know that back in the 1930s there was an earlier “Williamstown Summer Theater” that had nothing to do with the WTF of today. In the spring of 1936 three Williams sophomores– Talcott B. (“Teeb”) Clapp, Gordon Kay, and Thomas Morgan, all members of the Class of 1938 and members of the Little Theatre, a student group that put on...
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