Citizen Spotlight: Grace Hoag and Priscilla Howker

In 2004 long time Medway residents and volunteers with the Medway Historical Society Grace Hoag and Priscilla Howker published a collection of historical photographs, Images of America: Medway.  They began their work in 2000 and divided the work and worked mostly independently.  The close friends met at Galantes once a week to compare notes and keep each other on track. 

They travelled to Portsmouth New Hampshire four or five times to meet with the editorial team at Arcadia Publishing.  They found the in person approach very helpful to the process, with the publisher providing a template and guidance on captioning.  The ladies laugh at being too nervous to send the photographs through the mail so they were relieved that the publisher was so close so they could deliver them in person. 

They praised the publisher for assisting with distribution and recalled a book signing they held at Barnes & Noble.  They also sold them at the library and their unofficial office, Galantes.

The photos in the book came from The Francis Donovan photo collection, which is now with the Medway Historical Society, where Priscilla served as curator for many years.  Grace volunteered at the Historical Society for many years doing programming and managing the newsletter. 

Copies of Images of America: Medway can be purchased from the Medway Historical Society.

http://www.medwayhistoricalsociety.org/

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