NHS Installs New Cabinets in Historic Museum Space

The historic museum at 58 Eliot Street, on the lower level of the Bacon Free Library, has become even more beautiful. With the support of many generous donors, the NHS contracted with John I. Murphy & Co. to design and install four sets of custom cabinets. The cabinets now sit above the original wood and glass display cases designed for the museum when it opened in 1880. The new cabinets add 100 linear feet of storage, which will house small artifacts, archival materials, and supplies.

The new cabinets are part of a larger NHS initiative to re-center its work in the museum. The additional storage space provided by the cabinets will make it possible to bring archival and research materials back into the museum, now housed in a temporary location off-site. “Our goal is to make those materials more accessible to the public, so we can have more people learning about and connecting with Natick’s past,” says NHS director Niki Lefebvre.

The NHS staff and leadership are delighted with the look of the cabinets. “The cabinets fit in seamlessly; a visitor new to the museum would never realize that they weren’t original,” says board member Fran Weisse.  Fellow board member Jan Parsons adds, “We are thrilled with our additional cabinets. They will protect our valued artifacts while providing much-needed storage at the museum for our consolidated collection.”

The photographs below show the progress of the installation to date. Visitors will be welcome to view the cabinets in person when the museum reopens later this year.