To the Editor:

On behalf of our staff, our Board of Trustees, and our friends and supporters in the community, we wish a fond farewell to Erin Dougherty as she moves to an exciting new opportunity as the executive director of the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida. The Historical Society of Princeton (HSP) has blossomed under Erin’s leadership over the last nine years. The organization has boldly expanded its programs of learning and discovery for both children and adults. At HSP, youngsters can enjoy bug safaris or digging in the organic garden at the Society’s new Updike Farmstead home. Students come to us to play history detective, studying 300 years of Princeton history by visiting historic places and exploring related topics. At HSP, researchers can lose themselves in a search through our historic manuscripts and drawings. Visitors of all ages can see Einstein’s furniture in a salon exhibition paired alongside a rotating display of Princeton innovators. HSP is where you go for downtown history tours, inspirational lectures, the incomparable fall house tour, and the summer Concert Under the Stars. Under Erin’s leadership, Princeton history has come alive.

Several significant accomplishments of Erin’s deserve particular attention. Erin planned and executed a long-deferred relocation of HSP’s large collection of 3D objects and archival materials into a secure and climate-controlled space under its own direct control. Future researchers and historians will benefit greatly from this significant project to preserve and care for the collection. Erin also managed the transition of HSP headquarters to its owned campus at Updike Farmstead, a location where the organization has ample room for future growth and innovation. Already underway is a significant renovation of the historic barn, a space that is destined to become a magnet for cultural and social gatherings in our town.

As a direct consequence of Erin’s skilled leadership, HSP is now on an extremely secure financial footing. Thank you, Erin, for your stewardship. Because of your work, HSP has been able to live up to its vision: to pass along the important lessons of the past in order to promote respectful and responsible behavior among people, and toward the built and natural world around us.

Scott Sipprelle

President, Historical Society of Princeton, 

Chambers Street