New Haven Museum annual meeting will feature city historian

NEW HAVEN - The New Haven Museum will hold its 2012 Annual Meeting beginning at 5:30 p.m. November 29.

The business meeting is open to members to attend, according to a release. 

Also, in celebration of the Museum’s 150^th Anniversary, Judith A. Schiff, the newly appointed city historian for New Haven, will present a lecture that is free and open to the public at 6 p.m..

"The lecture, entitled “A Useful Public Project,” explores the founding of the New Haven Colony Historical Society when the Civil War prompted the desire by local residents for an institution to preserve and archive the city of New Haven’s history and heritage," the release said. 

"Using images from the New Haven Museum and Yale University archives, Schiff (shown in photo) will paint a picture of New Haven during the Museum’s early decades as immigration and the height of industrialization fueled the city’s rapidly changing social and cultural landscape through the end of the nineteenth century."

A reception will follow the talk.

Schiff also is chief research archivist at Yale University’s Sterling Library, specializing in Yale, New Haven, and American History, the release said. 

"A lifelong New Haven resident, Schiff attended the former Benton School on Whalley Avenue, Sheridan Middle School, and Hillhouse High School," the release said.

Also, the release said, Schiff attended Barnard College and Columbia University, and later returned to New Haven to attend library school at Southern Connecticut State University. 

"Schiff is a founder and past president of the New England Archivists and of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven. She is widely published on matters regarding Yale and New Haven history, including the Michelin Travel Publications’ Green Guide to Yale and New Haven, and a chapter on the social history of New Haven in New Haven: An Illustrated History, edited by Richard Hegel."

"Schiff is a dedicated volunteer, and has served as past president of the New Haven League of Women Voters and the Yale University Women's Organization. Currently, she serves on the governing boards of the Lindbergh Foundation, the New Haven Museum, and the Grove Street Cemetery."

The New Haven Museum is  at 114 Whitney Ave. For more information, contact Michelle Cheng, director of education, at (203) 562-4183 ext. 11 or education@newhavenmuseum.org. 

Editor's note: All information in this post was contributed.

 

Bottom Image: The English Memorial Building, where the New Haven Colony Historical Society was housed.