The Medford Historical Society was organized in 1896 by concerned citizens from the city of Medford, Massachusetts. In 2013  “Museum” was added to the name to mark the organization as the city’s museum.

The original purpose of MHS was to collect and preserve the history of this historic city, to correct the myths that had grown up over the years, to build a historical library, to collect the artifacts of local history, and to celebrate historical anniversaries.

One of the organization’s first projects was to sponsor a historical festival, “On the Banks of the Mystic,” in 1896. Shortly thereafter the Medford Historical Register started, which appeared quarterly until 1943. This printed original research and other interesting information about the city, thus preserving a great deal of local history that would otherwise have been lost.

Originally headquartered in an historic house at 2 Ashland Street, the birthplace of Lydia Maria Child and where the famous “Medford crackers” were made, this location was vacated in 1915. The following year the present headquarters at 10 Governors Avenue was built in a Spanish Mission style designed by then-president of the Society, Moses W. Mann.

In recent years, the Society has been active in cataloging and preserving its collections and modernizing the museum headquarters. MHS also sponsors historic bicycle tours, givea presentations to school-age youth, holds regular meetings with talks on the city’s history, and continues to preserve its collection of Civil War photographs.