Below are 15 reasons to renew/upgrade/give OCHS membership:
Completed extensive renovations and dedicated the Sandra and William H. Speiden Auditorium at our Research Center.
New audio/visual technology to record and broadcast live programs to reach our community in the comfort of their own homes.
Held off-site programs at Bloomsbury, Woodley, Mayhurst, Montpelier, and Grymes Memorial School.
Published the monthly electronic bulletin the Orange Oracle with expanded content and an enlivened format (https://www.orangecovahist.org/orange-oracle.html).
Produced 12 new episodes of History-to-Go on the Society’s YouTube channel for on-demand viewing. (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQvPfUSloS7GZW4Pce_17XQ/about).
Published our bi-annual Society newsletter, the Record to engage in depth, informative, historical content.
Increased collaboration with county teachers by conducting a history bus tour, adding online historical resources for their use, and facilitating a workshop at the research center.
Installed a corrected Marquis de Lafayette interpretive marker on the Society’s front lawn, drawing attention to this significant episode in county history.
Published Garland Tyree’s book, Old Blue Run Baptist Church, the First One
Hundred Years. Order yours here: (https://www.orangecovahist.org/books-dvds.html)
Designated a FamilySearch affiliate library with expanded online records access to help those conducting genealogical research.
Collaborated with the Orange County Geographic Information Services (GIS) office to provide historic map overlays of the towns of Gordonsville and Orange on current aerial photography to aid research.
Partnered with the Orange County Court Clerk’s office to provide our staff with electronic access to county land deeds and wills to facilitate local and genealogical research.
Collaborated with the Orange County African American Historical Society to clean up the Little Petersburg Cemetery.
Hosted a community-wide document scanning day.
Provided our hourly staff with a much needed salary increase.
Increased our dues paying membership to 265 members which, when combined with our non-dues educator and honorary memberships, brought our membership total to 349.