Wayland Historical Society Incorporated

The WHS has a part-time professional curator. The curator is responsible for: collections management - recording and cataloguing all items in the collection; and research - researching and responding to inquires from the public and identifying long-term projects relevant to the collection. She is also responsible for the Grout Heard House Museum, giving tours of the museum to the public and training volunteers.

The WHS maintains a website, waylandmuseum.org, which is a source of information for both members of the Society and the community at large. The website provides information about the Grout-Heard House and about current and upcoming programs provided or sponsored by the Society. Most programs are recorded and can be accessed from the website. The WHS sends an electronic newsletter to members and other subscribers with articles of interest about local Wayland history. The newsletters are also available on the website along with links to other resources for local history.

The WHS owns and maintains the Grout-Heard House Museum, a circa 1740 2 and 1/2 story colonial house with a circa 1826 ell and a 1962 addition for a kitchen and office. The collections are housed in the 9 room former dwelling - 7 rooms are used for exhibition space, one for storage and one for research. Exhibition rooms, open to the public for tours, are furnished with artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries, during which the time the house was occupied by the Grout and Heard families. They include furniture, art work, china, glass, and other artifacts. The Museum also maintains collections of photographs, maps, books, audio recordings and other types of documents that are available to researchers who come to the Museum and online through the WHS website and through Digital Commonwealth, a state-wide consortium of libraries, museums, and historical societies across Massachusetts.