Harvard has two organizations concerned with history, the Harvard Historical Society and the Harvard Historical Commission. Both have missions associated with preserving Harvard history. The two often work together in their missions for example, in researching the history and inventorying the historic buildings of the town. 

What's the difference?

The Historical Society

The Historical Society has a broad scope to its preservation mission: the Society preserves things that help clarify the history of Harvard, for example, documents, artwork, craft-work, farm implements, garments, fire-fighting apparatus, artifacts of commercial enterprises, houses, monuments, burial grounds, areas. Its collection is housed in a museum of Harvard’s past at the Still River Meetinghouse, 215 Still River Road, Harvard.

The Historical Society presents programs for the public that use the collection and documents to help “discover “ the town’s history, helps researchers through use of its collection, and provides educational opportunities for students.

The Historical Society depends entirely upon private donations through memberships, cash donations and otherwise for all phases of its operations; it receives no government funding.

The Historical Commission 

The Historical Commission is focused on historic ‘assets’ or ‘resources’ which include buildings, structures, areas, or objects. If the asset is within one of Harvard’s two historic districts, the Commission is directed by law to prescribe specific preservation measures to the owner. A process is in place to review the owner’s proposal for the repair or preservation work and to accept, modify or reject the proposal.

The Historical Commission, being an arm of Town government, gets some of its funding from government sources.