Passion for state history drives Grefe

SERIOUS BUSINESS: Morgan Grefe, right, executive director of the R.I. Historical Society, meets with Mary Lou Upham, membership officer. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
SERIOUS BUSINESS: Morgan Grefe, right, executive director of the R.I. Historical Society, meets with Mary Lou Upham, membership officer. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

Morgan Grefe can trace her interest in museums back to the hours upon hours spent after school listening to the stories of her great-grandmother, a woman born in 1890.

Grefe went on to receive her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, and seven years later a Ph.D. in American studies from Brown University – she immersed herself in the study of how people interact with the historic-built environment.

She chose to make Rhode Island her home after completing her studies and was hired by the Providence-based R.I. Historical Society as the founding director of the Newell D. Goff Center for Education and Public Programs. She said part of the reason why she stayed is Rhode Islanders’ obsession with local history. According to a 2013 survey, funded in part by New York City-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, there are more than 460 distinct history-related organizations statewide.

Chuckling, she added, “Anytime you hear someone saying Americans don’t care about their history, I don’t know who they’re talking about because it’s not Rhode Islanders … people take it very seriously.”

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Now, as executive director of the RIHS, she has made her mark on the Ocean State in more than one way.

The RIHS is the nation’s fourth-oldest historical society and, as the first female executive director in the organization’s 195-year history, Grefe views her appointment as a “major statement on inclusivity.

“Museums and organizations like this are generally not short on women, but there are not as many [female] executive directors,” she said.

Grefe knows a woman at the helm might have been “shocking” to RIHS founders in 1822, but added: “I like to think they’d surprise me … it’s in our state’s DNA,” referring to Anne Hutchinson, one of Rhode Island’s five founding leaders.

Almost six years in, Grefe said she is honored to be “the steward of people’s past and to have histories … and family treasures” entrusted to the RIHS to safeguard and use as educational tools.

One of her biggest accomplishments has been to “significantly increase” the RIHS endowment. A private organization funded by its members, the investment portfolio stood at roughly $9 million when she took over in 2011. Now it is more than $16 million, thanks to several anonymous donors.

The financial stability is “night and day,” she said. “When your daily work is survival, it doesn’t allow you the same ability to take chances and … reach new populations.”

When organizations such as RIHS are resource-strapped, their first cut is to programming, but Grefe said she has been able to continue to offer quality programming – including the All Ability Inclusive program.

Every second Saturday of the month is SensAbilities Saturday, when the museum opens an hour early for families who would prefer a low-sensory, such as different lights and sounds, less-crowded experience.

“We still need grants and philanthropic support, but the [endowment] allows us to think outside our museum box,” and serve communities with different needs, said Grefe.

The business end of RIHS operations analyzes the demographics that utilize the organization’s services, mostly professional-development opportunities, and determines ways to help these small-scale organizations, programs and individuals, “survive and sustain” in a financially unstable climate, she said.

At the top of a list of challenges, said Grefe, are space and time – very real factors when it comes to preserving and promoting history.

The challenge put to Grefe is how to collect what she described as a “disposable culture” and items that were “born digital.”

Compounding that is the shrinking amount of time teachers can devote to the study of history.

“[We reach out to] teachers who might not be a traditional history teacher and try to fit [our programming] into their curricula in new and interesting ways,” she said.

These obstacles aren’t miniscule, but in a time when many similar organizations have closed their doors, said Grefe, “The challenges we have are privileges … because we can talk about the future, 75 or 100 years out.”

Grefe wants RIHS to remain relevant to multiple generations of Rhode Islanders in an increasingly diverse and technology-driven populace.

She described this balancing act, saying: “We’re not your grandfather’s historical society, but we are because we have your grandfather’s stuff.” •

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