30. Joint Birthday Celebration, 1908

The Concord Antiquarian Society - now known as the Concord Museum - was established in 1886 by a group of Concordians devoted to preserving and promoting local history. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the society sponsored joint celebrations of its own founding and of Concord's incorporation. The shared birthday party on September 12, 1908 featured a historical address in the Town Hall by Judge Arthur A. Putnam of Uxbridge and a lecture at the First Parish by Thomas Whitney Surette on seventeenth century English music. Music educator and composer Surette, who was born and died in Concord, founded the Concord Summer School of Music in 1915.