The New Hyde Park Museum will have its official opening on the second floor of New Hyde Park Village Hall next Tuesday night.
The museum, a project in development over the past two years, will initially exhibit a selection of historical photographs that have been collected by volunteers over the past two years.
“It is history month for the town,” said village historian Carol Nowakowski. “The museum will be opened but we still have a lot to do.”
A group of resident volunteers, also known as the New Hyde Park Museum, is still in the process of collecting photographs and artifacts from village residents. The other major component of the museum will be an oral history that the volunteers began work on with interviews conducted during the village street fair last September.
The museum has received a charter from the state Department of Education, according to village Trustee Donald Barbieri. Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello secured a $17,000 grant from the county to enable the purchase of display cases and computer equipment for eventual interactive access to the verbal history being compiled.
A timeline of the village’s development since its incorporation in 1927 will also be on display.
“I think that we have funding that will allow us to move aggressively to get this thing set up,” Barbieri said.
Now that the charter is in place, Barbieri said the museum is now in the process of applying for non-profit status.
The museum currently has less than 100 historical photographs of the area in hand, according to Nowakowski, so the search is still on for more photos and artifacts. Many of the photos are being loaned to the museum by the village.
Nowakowski said there is a possibility that the New Hyde Park Fire Department will loan the museum some artifacts. She herself has donated a 1940s vintage piggy bank from the now defunct First Bank of New Hyde Park.
“We’re asking people to look through their photo albums,” Barbieri said.
He said museum volunteers will have a portable scanner to scan photographs in residents’ homes if they want to retain the original photographic prints. He said the volunteers are also eager to continue interviewing residents on an informal basis with video cameras or audio equipment.
“We’re looking to do interviews with longtime residents, to post this information on the Web site,” Barbieri said.
Original plans called for the museum to be located in the basement of Village Hall, which is itself an historical structure that served as the local school in the early 1900s.
After museum volunteers consulted with the curator oof the Sagamore Hill Museum in Oyster Bay, the village trustees decided a space on the second floor of Village Hall was more suitable, both aesthetically and for climate conditions.
Town of North Hempstead Clerk Leslie Gross is expected to present a proclamation from the town about the new museum at the opening on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in New Hyde Park Village Hall.
