For a full list of programs, please visit the Calendar
July 31, 2019
Join renowned scholar Robert Richardson as he shares recent reflections on Emerson, Thoreau, and Transcendentalism with responses from Bay Emerson Bancroft, Robert Gross, and Megan Marshall.
Robert Richardson was born in Milwaukee, spent his early years in Medford and Concord, attended and graduated from Harvard, and then pursued a career of teaching and writing. In his 
mid-forties he turned to writing intellectual biographies, spending ten years each on Thoreau (A Life of the Mind), Emerson (The Mind on Fire), and William James (In the Maelstrom of American Modernism). He currently divides his time between Key West, Cripple Creek, VA, and Cape Cod. As one reviewer has written: “While Richardson’s scholarly mastery of his subjects—the founding fathers of American intellectual life—is impressive, what astonishes is his ability to provide the reader with a visceral experience of their lives. Richardson’s books bear the vivid energy of our most imaginative writers and belong," says John Banville, "among the glories of contemporary literature.”
$5 Member | $10 Non-Member. This program is supported in part by the Sally Lanagan Fund and grants from the Concord Cultural Council, the Lexington Council for the Arts, and the Lincoln Cultural Council – local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
Register here.
August 7, 2019
For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all 
white and native-born. Join us for a conversation with Susan Ware, as she uncovers a much broader and more diverse story of the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship.
A pioneer in the field of women’s history and a leading feminist biographer, Susan Ware is the author and editor of numerous books on twentieth-century U.S. history. Educated at Wellesley College and Harvard University, she has taught at New York University and Harvard, where she served as editor of the biographical dictionary Notable American Women: Completing the Twentieth Century (2004). Since 2012, she has served as the general editor of the American National Biography, published by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. The Library of America published Ware's latest anthology on women's suffrage in May 2019.
Join us for a conversation between Susan Ware, Honorary Women's Suffrage Historian at Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library, and historian Ellen Fitzpatrick.
6:00 pm Wine and Cheese Reception; Co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters
7:00 pm Forum Untold Stories: Why They Marched with Susan Ware
$5 Member | $10 Non-Member. This program is supported in part by the Sally Lanagan Fund and grants from the Concord Cultural Council, the Lexington Council for the Arts, and the Lincoln Cultural Council – local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
Books available for purchase and signing in partnership with the Concord Bookshop. Register here.
August 15, 2019
Program Postponed: Unfortunately, the August 15 Concord Museum Forum with Sara Atwood on Black Devil and Gentle Cloud: Ruskin and Emerson at Odds, has been postponed.
We are working to reschedule this Forum, and will post updated information as soon as possible.
John Ruskin and Ralph Waldo Emerson are among the 'representative men' of the Victorian period and have by now assumed a place alongside the sort of Great Men whom they esteemed. Our current debates about education, nature, and labor echo with Ruskinian and Emersonian notions, from self-culture and self-reliance to mutuality and the value of work. We continue to face many of the problems with which they wrestled and to seek answers to the questions they asked. Explore the ways in which Ruskin's and Emerson's vision of the world and of human nature, diverged, leaving each man convinced that the other's understanding was misguided and incomplete.
Speaker Sara Atwood’s work has appeared in The Ruskin Review and Bulletin, Nineteenth-Century Prose, The Journal of 
Pre-Raphaelite Studies, and Carlyle Studies Annual. Her book, Ruskin’s Educational Ideals, was published by Ashgate in 2011. She is a contributor to the Yale University Press edition of Carlyle’s On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History (2013), Teaching Victorian Literature in the Twenty-First Century (Palgrave 2017), John Ruskin and Nineteenth-Century Education (Anthem Press 2018), William Morris and John Ruskin: A New Road on Which the World Should Travel (University of Exeter Press 2019) and Victorian Environmental Nightmares (Palgrave 2019). She has lectured widely on Ruskin, both in the US and abroad, focusing particularly on education, the environment, and language. Dr. Atwood lives in Oregon, where she is an adjunct lecturer in English literature and writing at Portland State University and Portland Community College.
$5 Member | $10 Non-Member. This program is supported in part by the Sally Lanagan Fund and grants from the Concord Cultural Council, the Lexington Council for the Arts, and the Lincoln Cultural Council – local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
Register here.
August 17, 2019
Walk through town and focus on the notable women who shaped Concord’s history. The tour highlights famous historical figures as Louisa May Alcott and Margaret Fuller, to those who are less well known, such as Ellen Garrison and Mary Merrick Brooks. Walking Tour tickets gain you free same-day admission to the Concord Museum, including the Women of Concord Collection Spotlight on Saturday, August 11 at 1:00 p.m. $5 Member | $10 Non-Member. Meet at the Concord Museum's Rasmussen Education Center (53 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord, MA 01742) by 10:45 a.m. Register here.
August 17, 2019
Featuring intimate imagery from the Concord Museum’s collection, explore the lives and legacies of women who have shaped and continue to shape the American experience with Concord Museum curator David Wood. Included with Museum admission; Members free. Program seating is first come first serve. Image: Inscribed Leaf. Sophia E. Thoreau, October 13, 1868. Shagbark hickory, ink. Concord Museum Collection, Gift of Mr. W.J.R. Taylor (1949).
July 27, 2019
In the 1800s, Concord was the center for American authors and thinkers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Louisa May Alcott. They gathered together with other Concordians to discuss issues of the day such as slavery, war, the natural world, and many other topics. Led by a Museum educator, explore 1800s Concord and discover the impact of the anti-slavery movement and the Civil War, the lives and homes of the famous authors who lived here. 1 mile walk, mostly flat sidewalk or pavement, rain or shine $5 Member | $10 Non-Member. Meet outside Wright Tavern (2 Lexington Road, Concord, MA 01742) by 10:45 a.m. Register here.
August 2, 2019
Thanks to the generosity of the Highland Street Foundation, the Concord Museum is open FREE all day from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Experience Concord's history through object-based and hands-on activities. All activities are on a first come, first served basis and will run rain or shine. 
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Community Window Mural
Toy Maker's Apprentice
At Home in Concord
The Wonders of Wool
Red Coat and Minute Man at Odds
Be Thoreau! An Amble for Citizen Scientists
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Wandering Laughter Folk Music Performances
10:00 AM • 12:00 PM • 1:30 PM
Dwelling in Description • Close – Looking Activity
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sun Printing
Nature Journals
Cluck and Baa Farm
Henry Bear Reading Corner
Museum Membership Raffle
Hydration Station
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Chillwagon Ice Cream Available for Purchase
August 10, 2019
Explore the activism and debate around women’s suffrage in Concord. Using primary materials from the Concord Museum Collection, participants will examine the variety of printed materials from both sides of the debate. Through close-looking and thinking routines, participants will determine what makes effective and convincing propaganda. 100 years after women gained the right to vote, what are we still fighting for? Design your own political button with a pithy slogan and striking graphics. Free with Museum admission. Members visit free. Appropriate for all ages.
September 7, 2019
Apples have been the center of the New England harvest since the British first brought seeds and cuttings across the Atlantic in the 17th century. Now, New England’s apple orchards grow some 40 varieties of apples, providing fruit to snack on as well as for juices, ciders, pies, and desserts. Participate in hands-on programming pressing cider and baking pie from a variety of locally-grown apples. With the Museum’s colonial hearth, there is no better way to taste history. Throughout the day, contribute to the community art mural, which asks: What can you add to our apple orchard? Hurry into the Museum to get a flavor of the harvest before it runs out! Appropriate for all ages. Free Member | Free Non-Member.