Volunteer opportunities

We love volunteers! In fact, we just can't get enough of them! Would you like to volunteer for the Bedford Historical Society? In addition to honor and gratitude, we'll also give you the opportunity to learn some skills that could be useful if you plan to pursue a career in archival or museum work. Not to mention that volunteering is fun!

There are many opportunities for volunteers to make a contribution to the Society. Here are just a few of them. Unless otherwise noted, volunteers work anytime during our usual office hours, Monday 9-5, Tuesday 9-1, and Wednesday 9-1.

Photograph vintage clothing. You'll take digital photographs of our collection of vintage clothing. Equipment and training provided. If interested, you'll also learn how to load the photographs into our online catalog.

Transcribe antique documents. Are you good at reading difficult handwriting? Many of our antique documents are a challenge to read but provide fascinating historical information when deciphered. If you have the patience to work through 17th- and 18th-century handwriting, you'll be pleased with what you find.

Digitize the collection. This is a fancy way of saying that we need someone to enter data from our old-fashioned card catalog into PastPerfect, the widely-used museum software that we use to catalog our collection. Okay, it's not the most exciting work -- but it's a great opportunity to learn about PastPerfect. You'll learn a skill that's very useful in the museum field.

Do deed research. How old is that house? Who were the people that have owned it? The way to find out is by doing deed research at the Registry of Deeds in Cambridge. We'll go with you and show you the basics. Once you've started, you can go any weekday during Registry hours.

Scan photographs. We'll show you how to scan photographs and load them into our computer catalog. If interested, you can also learn how to tweak them with Photoshop.