Exhibitions

Here you will find permanent exhibits (arrangement of rooms), special rotating exhibits; community exhibits; loans and exchanges with other historical societies, and the development of new exhibit areas.

Current Exhibits

Margaret Ingraham Museum of Billerica History

Past Exhibits

1923 Time capsule – opened 2023

Upon opening the time capsule in 2024, this letter from Edward F. Dickinson summed up the intent of those who chose to capture time in 1923, as well as look to the future:

I included photos of just a few of the artifacts that lay in the “Copper box” at the end of the letter. We have a display case filled with items for you to see.

Billerica MA October 27th, 1923, 2:00 PM

Upon this bright October afternoon (Saturday), we gather here in the Historical rooms at the Bennett Public Library, members of the Society, citizens, and friends of Billerica; to give greeting to you of another generation – and to enclose within a substantial chest, various mementoes touching the past and present life of the Town, that we trust will have value to you, citizens of the Billerica, to be – a hundred years hence!

As our own thoughts have often turned backward with historical interest, we have found, from scarcity of material, a difficulty in knowing and picturing the earlier town and times. Billerica of the past has left its memorials of the larger sort; but the finer painting of its life and progress has not been made fully, for us.

That you, citizens of the town in coming time, and descendants of those now making its life, may have, in some degree, a fuller knowledge of antecedent Billerica, we fill this chest today with material that will give you a story of our town and our period, – one that will grow in value with the years.

Some minor touches of realism may help you to visualize our community life of 1923.

The electric car has just left on its hour’s trip to Arlington Heights and Boston, via Lexington. In this time, it will meet perhaps 200 automobiles (unknown 20 years ago) and but half a dozen horse teams. An airplane or two may pass overhead! Electric lines to Woburn and to Wilmington have been discontinued in recent years. All our main highways are hard and smooth, being built of macadam or cement. Most autos of the thousands that pass through our town daily are of the cheaper sort, called Fords. At this date, their maker, Henry Ford, has not been elected president, though said to be an aspirant. Upon the Branch of the Boston & Maine railroad that runs through the Center, some ten trains run daily. This is half the number needed for public travel before the general use of trolley cars and autos. All crossings on our Branch are at grade. Such dangerous places will probably be unknown to you in 2023; and we will trust that control of auto traffic (if all travel is not then by air) will have eliminated the greater number of fatalities now experienced. In Massachusetts, these now number fifty per one hundred thousand cars yearly – as I read today – fifteen thousand in the entire country.  more…

Images – Billerica Historical Society © 2025 – all rights reserved

1923 Time Capsule Exhibit