About Us
John Walker, President
Susan Driscoll, Vice President
June Anderson Murphy, Treasurer
Jonathan Kline, Secretary
Brendan Carmichael
William Daley
Kathy Ellis
Johnny Gibbons
Barbara Bangs MacNeil
Joan Russell Osgood
Liaisons​
Jen Ratliff, Sandwich Town Archivist
Taylor White, Sandwich Town Clerk
Diane Costagliola, Library Director
Robert Thomson, Board of Library Trustees
Scott Floeck, Sandwich Historical Society
Board Members
​Meetings
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Board members meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the Sandwich Public Library.
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​FOSTA’s Annual Meeting is held each year on the fourth Wednesday of October at the Sandwich Public Library.
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​FOSTA Membership
Support FOSTA and become a 'Friend' by making a $25 donation. Additional information is available here.
​Contact Us
We would love to know what you think and suggestions are always welcome. Please drop us a line!
The Founding of FOSTA
Richard J. Connor,
former Sandwich Library Director
Richard J. Connor
Former Library Director & FOSTA Founder
Until the founding of FOSTA, the town archives were a department of the town clerk, who at that time was Barbara George Walling. Barbara Luksanen Gill was the part-time archivist. The archives were located in the attic of the Town Hall Annex across the street from the library. One bare lightbulb hung from the ceiling and books were piled everywhere, some not even on shelves. Climate control was completely absent. The hot, dim attic was referred to as the "dark hole of Calcutta.”
In 2003, the town select board, finance committee, and town administrator decided to withdraw all funding for the town archives.
It was then that Sandwich Public Library Director Richard J. Connor gathered stakeholders to discuss his proposal to create a "friends of" group to save the archives.
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After the meeting, Richard immediately applied for the needed 501(c)(3) tax exempt status so that FOSTA could begin requesting donations. A committee was formed based on the former “archives committee” that had been in existence in the 1970s and thereon for some years.
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​The committee's first task was to raise funds to pay the archivist's small salary since the town was no longer a support system. Another important task was addressing the desperate need to find proper storage for the archival materials on hand.
Richard Connor came to the rescue once again by providing a new home for the archives in the library's Dodge MacKnight Room.
Volunteers moved all the materials out of the Town Hall Annex attic and into the Macknight Room, a mammoth task. Committee member Kaethe Maguire vividly recalls Russell Lovell, the town's first archivist and already a senior citizen, carrying box after box down flights of stairs from the attic and across the street into the library.
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Months of cleaning and organization followed. FOSTA members spent weeks, scrubbing, painting, and organizing to create some semblance of order.
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In 2006 the library trustees voted to adopt the town archives as part of the Sandwich Public Library.
The late Russell A. Lovell, Jr. at 100 years of age.
Russell A. Lovell, Jr.
Historian, Author, First Town Archivist 1976-1988
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Almost as soon as Russell A. Lovell Jr. arrived in Sandwich he and his wife, Penelope, began the preservation of historic assets for our ancient American town. The Smith-Hoxie House and the Grist Mill had already been restored, but there was much to do, especially with regard to the written history of our town founded in 1637.
In 1971 he was one of the founders of the Sandwich Historical Commission, which is the local arm of the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
In 1973 he was one of the movers to establish a town archive. He worked tirelessly, not only as our first archivist, but as the author of the town's history in Sandwich, A Cape Cod Town, first published in 1984 and now in its fifth printing.
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The late Barbara Gill, Former Sandwich Town Archivist. Photo courtesy of The Sandwich Enterprise.
Barbara Luksanen Gill
Town Archivist 1988-2016
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Barbara Luksanen Gill was born in Forestdale, the farming portion of Sandwich, to Mabel Fish -- whose roots trace back to the founder of Sandwich, Edmund Freeman -- and John Luksanen, whose ancestry was all Finnish.
Barbara earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Simmons College in Boston and worked in the science community of Woods Hole before she settled into the preservation, recording, and keeping of the family histories of the founding and early families of Sandwich.
Her mind was like an accurate computer of all things historic, right up to her passing.​​ FOSTA's scholarship is named in her honor.
Kaethe Maguire
FOSTA President 2013-2023
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Any story about the founding of FOSTA must include the contributions made by Kaethe Maguire, one of the founders of FOSTA in 2003.
Her unwavering commitment to the historic preservation of our unique town led her to serve as a member of a number of organizations including the Sandwich Public Library's Board of Trustees, Thornton Burgess Society Board of Trustees, Old King's Highway Historic District Committee, Sandwich Preservation Implementation Committee, Sandwich Tree and Landscape Committee, Sandwich Historical Commission, and of course the Friends of the Sandwich Town Archives.
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Under Kaethe's leadership, FOSTA increased the archives' visibility and funding by launching a digital presence with a website and Facebook page, editing and publishing archived videos, and writing a monthly column for The Sandwich Enterprise. She also helped pioneer 'Tell Me A Story'—a collaboration with Sandwich Community Television to preserve local memories. Kaethe retired in 2023, capping 20 years of service and a decade as President.
Kaethe Maguire, one of FOSTA's founders and a twenty year member
Julia Claire "Judy" Hendy
Former FOSTA Member
Sandwich born and raised, Judy Hendy was a friend, a member, and a valuable contributor to FOSTA, sharing her knowledge of the town and its history.
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Her relationship with FOSTA began when Judy was the assistant town clerk and attend meetings when the town clerk could not.
Judy continued to serve FOSTA after retiring, and she created the Barbara Lukansen Gill scholarship which she coordinated each year with Sandwich High School.
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Judy Hendy remained an active board member until her death in 2021.