What this Website Addresses
One of the prime reasons for this website is to provide a window into the CHS as it pursues its goal of preserving and presenting Charlestown's history - to interested folk both local and distant.
As one might expect, the CHS membership is predominantly composed of people who live within the town's boundaries (very well described in the 'The Green Square Mile'). However, a website enables a much more distant audience to participate in the society, ranging from the widely spread Charlestown diaspora, to genealogy buffs trying to track down family history.
A website enables more rapid communication than a mailed newsletter (which will inevitably, eventually, go the way of bank paper statements ....), and is a far more practical tool for informing the membership of donations, acquisitions, planned events and also making the CHS archives available to general search - see eHive.
It is also intended to facilitate:- the growth of membership.
- the involvement of volunteers, interns and active members in the CHS's operation and projects.
- the provision of on-line access to the CHS for those local members who are housebound or otherwise restricted in making the walk to the museum building - at the top of the hill ! - provided of course, that they are Internet savvy ....
- an interest in the Town's history, from its distant past with its deep roots in the formation of the country, through two World Wars, Urban Renewal and to its present day 'gentrification'.
- the donation of Charlestown memorabilia, and hence its preservation, cataloging and making the materials and their relevance to the town available as on-line knowledge.
- a mechanism for feedback and participation. Allowing comments, revisions and updates to the archives - a sort of wiki-Charlestown-History ??
Charlestown Historical Society • Offices, Top Floor, Bunker Hill Museum • PO Box 291776
• Email editor@charlestownhistoricalsociety.org • tel-617-241-2201
