Craig Michaud: Collector of everything and steward of Nashua memories

Craig Michaud with a menu from The Modern, one of Nashua’s most iconic restaurants.

NASHUA, NH – Craig Michaud grew up as most boys of the 1970s and 1980s did in Nashua’s French Hill area: collecting baseball cards and sports memorabilia. He favored Nashua items. After all, this was his hometown.

Collecting, for Michaud, was almost a passive pastime until 2017 – when “thunder” struck. He attended the estate sale for Mr. Frank Mooney, a long-time Nashua mail carrier, member of the Nashua Historical Society, and owner of what was then one of the largest collections of Nashua memorabilia ever.

Michaud explains, “After seeing what he had I knew that was where I was headed. I wanted to have one of everything associated with Nashua. Some collectors need multiples of everything. Not me – one is enough. There’s only so much room to store it all!”

Since 2017, Michaud has almost completely filled the first floor of his split-level home with Nashua memorabilia. When asked how he comes by these items Michaud replied, “Some stuff just finds me. Friends will clean out their parents’ or grandparents’ attic, uncover all kinds of cool stuff and just give it to me. Sometimes I go to estate sales. I cruise eBay quite often,” says Michaud.

“If I hear of a Nashua business going belly-up, I’m the first one to ask for signs or anything associated with the business. Restaurant menus are a favorite. Most recently, 7-Star Pizza went out of business on Main Street and I ended up with their outside sign. I was also able to get the outside sign off the former Country Tavern that was on Milford Road,” Michaud says.

“This is not a cheap hobby,” says Michaud. “For example, I recently purchased a little tool used to shave the kernels of corn off a cob. It was made by the Nashua Sheller Company. I never heard of the company and could not find any information on it. But that little tool was $350. I also paid a lot for a fireman’s parade belt from Nashua’s Torrent No.1 engine company from the 1870s. I bought this from another collector and despite its age, it is in almost perfect condition.”

Another of his more – “pricy” but prize items is the ceremonial shovel used to move the first bit of earth to start the St. Joseph Hospital addition project in 1979.

When asked about his most cherished item Michaud pondered for a moment; then replied, “I have arranged most of my items on display in my home and several times a week I’ll go down there and just walk around and look at it all. No one item stands out because they all have a history and a story to tell. I even have a paper grocery sack from the old Jean’s Foodland. They went through zillions of those bags over the years and who thought to save one?”

One of the items Michaud considers most fascinating is a uniform jersey from the Nashua Angels, a Class AA farm club to the California Angels. They played in Nashua for one season in 1983.

One of his most unique items is a triangular man-hole cover. Nashua is one of the few cities in the entire world that use triangular manhole covers. The Nashua Foundry began producing these in the 1930s. The engineer who designed them claimed that they would rattle less when driven over by a car in the street. On occasion, these are replaced with round manhole covers once the triangular setting is removed and replaced. The Nashua Historical Society will then auction off the triangular covers to raise money for the Historical Society.

When asked about some of his older items, Michaud talked about city directories for 1850 to 1853 covering both Nashua and Nashville. (Note: From 1842 to 1853, Nashua, as we know it today, was split into two municipalities. North of the Nashua River was incorporated as Nashville and south of the Nashua River was Nashua. The two were merged in 1853 upon the incorporation of the City of Nashua.) Some other old items from that period are copies of the Nashua/Nashville Oasis newspaper and copies of the Nashua Gazette from the 1830’s.

Asked if there were any items not yet in his collection that he would like to find, Michaud replied, “When I was a kid I delivered newspapers for the Nashua Telegraph. All us paperboys had those bright orange bags used to carry the papers… I would love to have one of those. Also, I have ‘keys to the city’ from Nashua mayors going back to Mario Vagge but I don’t have one for Donnalee Lozeau or Donald Davidson. I also think it would be great to have a newborn onesie shirt that Memorial Hospital gave new mothers for their babies. It was printed with ‘I met my mother at Memorial Hospital.’”

A collection of sleeve patches depicting different fire companies of the Nashua Fire/Nashua Fire Rescue Department. The top image is the Torrent parade belt mentioned in the article.

But what does one do with all these items once you have amassed them? Michaud is the administrator for the Facebook site, Nashua NH, Past, Present and Future, with a following of 25,000 people. People who know Michaud from the site will get into a discussion with him about his collection and end up visiting him to see it all.

This led to the manager of the local Longhorn Steak House contacting Michaud, arranging to have some of his baseball memorabilia on display in the restaurant. Even Mayor Donchess, who follows the Facebook site, asked Michaud about his collection and visited Michaud at his home for a personal tour. This resulted in Michaud lending some items to be displayed in Nashua’s City Hall. Featured are memorabilia from baseball greats Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella who played for the Nashua Dodgers. With these two men, the Nashua Dodgers became the first professional baseball team of the 20th century to field a racially integrated line-up.

Michaud noted, “Some collectors like to keep their treasures hidden in a dark basement or attic and never share it with anyone. I think there is a value to these items; to be shared and enjoyed by all who have an interest in history and in antiques. I have even provided displays for high school reunions, displaying items consistent with the year those people graduated high school.”

Looking to the future, Michaud has already started saving things that today may seem mundane and disposable, but could have interest for the next generation of Nashua memorabilia collectors, 50 or 100 years from now.

Michaud explains, “I save advertising flyers, political mailers, receipts for different things I buy. If it’s small enough to fit in a large plastic tub I have, it gets saved. Someday, someone will look at a receipt, and wonder where that store went… and where the prices went!”

With his extensive memorabilia collection, a most-popular Facebook site, the ubiquity of his high-quality Nashua photography, and his annual Nashua calendars, Craig Michaud can truly be called, the Steward of Nashua Memories.