Staff Members & Board of the Hanover Historical Society
Stephen O'Neill
Executive Director
Stephen C. O’Neill is an author, educator, and public historian with over thirty years of experience and has served as Executive Director of the Hanover Historical Society for ten years, where he stewards the collections and programs at the Historic Drummer Samuel Stetson House. Under his direction the Society has developed the successful Stetson Scholar program with Hanover’s Center Elementary School and accomplished the restoration of the Society’s 19th Century transportation collection of wagons, carriages, and sleighs. O’Neill also serves as Director of the Dyer Memorial Library in Abington.
A graduate of Boston College and Boston University, O’Neill was formerly Associate Director & Curator of Collections at Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth and a Senior Lecturer in History at Suffolk University, where he taught a popular course on the History of Piracy. He was the 2018 Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Scholar-in-Residence at the Old Colony History Museum in Taunton, and in 2019 served as Guest Curator for the archaeology exhibit In Small Things Remembered at the Alden House Historic Site in Duxbury. He is an expert on cemeteries and burying grounds and has lead many tours and lectured widely on death and mourning customs in Early America.
O’Neill is the author of The Life of Peregrine White: The First Englishman Born in New England and Alden Archaeology: Exhibiting the Daily Lives of a Mayflower Family, and has curated more than twenty exhibitions.
A lifelong South Shore resident, he is a member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Plymouth’s Old Colony Club, and a Proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum.
Evan O'Brien
President
Evan O’Brien is the Creative Manager of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum™ and has overseen the creation, development, and management of the museum’s exhibits, special events, and public programs since 2012. Most recently, he led the commemorative efforts associated with the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party in 2023, which included a year’s worth of public history events in 9 U.S. states, 3 European nations, and a grand-scale reenactment on the 250th anniversary attended by 20,000 spectators along Boston’s Harborwalk.
Throughout his tenure, the museum has seen over 2 million visitors and earned recognition as one of Boston’s best museums by Yankee Magazine and Conde Nast Traveler. The museum has also been a 5-time recipient of the CILC Pinnacle Award for its virtual student programming, and received the 2024 TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice Award, recognizing the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum among the top 10% of attractions/museums worldwide.
In addition to his work at the museum, Evan is also a member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and served as Chair of the Commemorations Committee for Revolution 250 from 2017-2022 and helped to organize the creation of multiple historical events and reenactments in Boston and across New England. A graduate of Emerson College in 2003, Evan has created and managed historical tours and public history experiences for over 20 years, specializing in the blending of theatrical performance, storytelling, historical information, and historical interpretation to provide educational and entertaining experiences for audiences, students, and visitors from around the world.
Megan Depontbriand
Secretary, Board Member
Originally from Massachusetts, Megan spent years navigating the unique challenges and rewards of a Navy spouse, traveling the country to support her husband’s career. This journey through diverse regions only deepened her affinity for the rich, foundational history she grew up with.
Upon returning home to Massachusetts, Megan channeled that newfound appreciation into a Master’s degree in North American History. She is currently continuing her education at Tufts University, further refining her expertise while serving on the Board of the Hanover Historical Society. Inspired by her own experience as a mother, Megan is dedicated to making history fun and engaging for all generations of our community.
Les Molyneaux
President Emeritus, Board Member
Rebecca Griffith
Consultant
Rebecca Griffith is an experienced museum professional and independent consultant with over ten years of expertise in public history, collections management, and program development across various museum and nonprofit settings. She specializes in helping cultural institutions improve organization, accessibility, preservation, and community engagement through project-based work, including exhibitions, educational programming, and strategic planning. Her background includes key roles in curatorial and archival work, successful contributions to museum re-accreditation efforts, and extensive experience with collections care, digitization, and research. She has a passion for connecting local history and community, and sees works of art in the everyday objects of small historical society collections.
Kat Kingsley
Board Member, Webmaster
As a THEA award-winning Creative Director and USA Today Bestselling Author, telling gripping stories and creating unique and unforgettable experiences has always been at the core of Kat’s life. Currently, she is the Principal Writer for the popular and critically acclaimed online game WARFRAME™ where she specializes in crafting branching narratives.
Prior to that, she was Chief of Staff and Design Director at Volition Games, and spent a decade at Box Fort and 5 Wits Productions as their Creative Director building and designing electromechanical exhibitory for clients such as the Museum of Science, the Strong Museum of Play, the Tech Museum of Industry and Innovation, Disney, the Children’s Museum of Houston and many, many more.
Evan Schwed
Treasurer, Board Member
Evan is a financial services professional who enjoys developing engaging community programs that support local historic education and preservation. Outside of managing the HHS finances, he also enjoys reading and reviewing books focused on underreported historical events.
In college, Evan analyzed and catalogued primary source materials from his School’s special collections library relating to the history of India and wrote a senior thesis focused on the British East India Company’s budgeting failures leading up to the Revolt of 1857.
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