I love museums and history, so I was thrilled to be contacted by Sean Hooley a few weeks ago.

Hooley is part of a team working on The Launch at the historic Hingham Shipyard. The shipyard, located in Hingham, Massachusetts, once played a large role in World War Two and the Allied victory. The story begins on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. At that time all other shipyards were already working at full capacity so it was clear that a new shipyard would have to be created and within weeks the small town of Hingham was selected. One hundred and fifty acres were cleared and one of the largest shipbuilding centers in the entire country was built, with over 2500 women working to put out over six ships each month — in less than two years.

The shipyard has been largely unused since it was shut down after the end of the war. Now it’s being redeveloped — but the town wanted the story about the shipyard and what happened there to be told. So the development project includes an educational exhibit commemorating the history of the shipyard.

The Hingham Shipyard Historical Exhibit will be a series of panels located along pedestrian walkways and parks on the site, creating a walking tour. During his quest for images for the panels, Hooley had come upon my blog post on life on the home front during World War Two, and this image of “How Your Discarded Stockings Go To War” (from Volume 12, Number 2, 1943, Modern Woman Magazine, George M. Wessells, Publisher) seemed perfect for the historic project.

Naturally I was thrilled to play a part — no matter how small — in the project. It’s history for Pete’s sake! But first, we had to be clear on a few things, such as the fact that as a collector I had scanned and posted the image for informational purposes but I do not own the rights to it. Once we were rather certain of the intellectual property issues, it was a matter of me sending him a good scan.

Now I just sit and wait while Hooley and his cohorts add the image (along with an image of a woman having fake stocking seams painted on) to one of the panels. The images are to appear on a panel called “Home Front Sacrifices”, which will cover such things as victory gardens, conservation, and rationing — including the story of nylon stockings in the war effort.

Once it’s open, I’ll have to make plans to travel to Massachusetts to take the walking tour of the Hingham Shipyard Historical Exhibit. I’d love to see the exhibit I’ve been a small part of.

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I also wanted to mention that I’ll be at the joint “Meeting In The Middle” 2008 annual conference for both the Mountain-Plains Museums Association & the Association of Midwest Museums this week; I’m part of the panel discussion on Wednesday, October 22, Session C2 titled Museums & Web 2.0. Maybe I’ll see some of you there?

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 6:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.