Shelter Island Historical Society marks 100 years — Looking to the future while honoring the past

This year the Shelter Island Historical Society will celebrate the centennial of its founding.

The Society’s History Center on Route 114, incorporating its new vault, exhibit spaces, museum shop and the original Havens House, is currently closed while the staff prepares exhibits to give the community the opportunity to mark the anniversary.

Executive Director Nanette Lawrenson said the Society is happy to have their entire museum collection back from storage necessitated by the construction. “We’re going to spend the winter going through everything and assessing,” she said, “so we can plan the exhibits.”

That’s not to say that major plans are not in the works already.

The popular “Time Travelers” program for children, which previously ran for four weeks in the summer, with a different artisan each week teaching the campers about arts and skills from the past, is to expanding to a year-round program.

Chris Fokine and other instructors will share their arts and skills to help youth learn about traditional crafts and keep those traditions alive.

A new, immersive acting summer program for children will be launched this summer, conducted by Brooklyn Acting Lab. It will be a two-week program, capped at 30 children. In the first week, the children will pick a topic, write a script and make the props and costumes. The second week will be for rehearsal and performance.

Children as well as adults will be involved in a new musical production, following the success of last summer’s “Hill of Beans,” created by Islanders Lisa Shaw and Tom Hashagen. Their musical “Prospect of Summer,” about the Island’s grand Prospect Hotel in the year 1938, will run from July 22-24.

The very popular Havens Farmers Market will return in summer 2022, running from Memorial Day to Labor Day Weekends. Local produce, flowers, seafood, cheese, wines and handmade crafts will fill the outdoor market, which offers people-watching as enticing as the shopping.

As the Society staff pores over all the documents, artifacts and artworks in its collection — everything from intricate mosaics to horse-drawn buggies from Sylvester Manor, Ms. Lawrenson said she anticipates they will come up with “thousands of ideas, it’s such a creative time, exploring how to curate all the objects in the collection and present them.”

She said they will focus strongly on art, which is an intrinsic element of Island history and story-telling. Stained-glass artist and illustrator Walter Cole Brigham has important works in the collection, for example, as does Helena Hernmarck, whose textile works in the History Center vividly conjure up the Island’s past.

A gala celebration is planned for August, when social gatherings can once again be safely enjoyed. Ms. Lawrenson said while celebrating the centennial the Society wants to “focus on the next 100 years,” and will seek the community’s involvement on how to build on their first 10 decades.

Information is available on the Society’s website, shelterislandhistorical.org.