This past Christmas I wanted to give something a little out of the ordinary for a gift. A few 1,000 piece puzzles seemed to fit the bill, especially because they are good ways to relax during the holidays.
While participating in the assembly of one of these puzzles, it occured to me how similar they were to the task entrusted to the Bradford County Historical Society.
When the society was founded in 1870, its members had the equivalent of a puzzle box with a few pieces inside. Interpreting the history of a community is like a puzzle box that is blank on the outside. What makes the puzzle a little less challenging is the fact that you can look at the completed picture on the box to use as a guide. When preserving local history, it is not often that you know the final picture from the beginning. Many times you have to collect the puzzle pieces, and at random you will discover that a few of the pieces fit together. You may even discover that the overall puzzle is much larger than you thought.
Two goals of the historical society are preservation and education. This is where the puzzle pieces become important.
BCHS has the job of searching out the puzzle pieces that are scattered everywhere from Main Street in Towanda to the far reaches of the United States. The mystery is that we are not always sure what the pieces look like.
The question is, who has these pieces to Bradford County's historical puzzle? We have often found that most everyone has at least one puzzle piece to offer. Others have more. They are all an important part of creating the final picture. The historical society's mission is to gather these pieces and then fit them together when possible. This is preservation.
As the picture grows, it is then our duty to interpret what we see. This is education.
So what is your piece of the puzzle? Have you added it (whether information, photos, or artifacts) to the society collection? Remember - to see the overall picture of our history, we need your piece of the puzzle. A version of this article was written by Matt Carl in 2006 and has been adapted for use here.
