Wellesley’s Paintshop Pond: Polluting Paint Factory to Beautiful Wetland
The goals of this project, Wellesley's Paintshop Pond, were to make information regarding the history and remediation of Paintshop Pond accessible, inspire contemplation concerning the unseen aspects of our landscape and the connection between our landscape’s health and our own, encourage the utilization of the space for recreation and research. To develop the Storymap, Jessica conducted archival research in the Wellesley College Archives and online research. She also learned GIS mapping to show how the landscape has changed overtime. In addition, Jessica interviewed several people who were here at the time or knew of the site’s history. From this research, Jessica developed an interactive Storymap detailing the history of Paint Shop Pond (specifically the operation of Henry Wood’s Sons Co. Paint Factory), the long process of remediation, and the landscape’s current and possible future use. There are many research projects that could extend this work on the past and future of Paintshop Pond.
Student: Jessica Ostfeld ‘20
Collaborators: Wellesley LTS (Rebecca Goldman, Sara Ludovissy, Marci Hahn-Fabris, Jenifer Bartle, Sarah Hoskins)
