Every spring this lecture focuses on a topic relevant to those interested in decorative arts, collecting antiques, gardening, and the home and brings to the Museum an expert in their field. Past topics included decorating with blue, antique jewelry, the gardens of Winterthur, and Chinese export porcelain. The 2019 Lesneski Memorial Lecture will be held on March 28, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. in the Franklin Lyceum of the Rasmussen Education Center with Catherine Allgor, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, on “‘The Great Centre of Attraction’: Dolley Madison Creates the White House”. A reception organized by the Guild of Volunteers will follow the lecture. Register here.
Save the date for the 2019 Patriots’ Ball: April 13, 2019! Join us for an evening of music, raffles, cocktails, Americana style food, and patriotic activities – including a late night march through town to see Samuel Prescott ride in on horseback to warn us that the “Regulars are coming out!” The Patriots’ Ball is organized by the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers to support the Concord Museum’s education programs.
Make the Concord Museum part of your Patriots’ Day tradition! Each April, Concord is the focal point for visitors from near and far as area minutemen reenact the fateful events of April 19, 1775 and fife and drum corps from all over the nation march down Main Street. After the Patriots’ Day parade, or anytime throughout the Patriots’ Day weekend, visit the Concord Museum’s six history galleries and experience a hands-on orientation to Concord’s remarkable past.
Join us for the 30th Annual Garden Tour, a benefit organized by the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers featuring outstanding private gardens in the Concord area. The 2019 Garden Tour will be held on May 31, 2019 & June 1, 2019.
This annual, premier golf tournament supports the Museum’s educational initiatives. The 24th Annual Tournament, organized by the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers, will be held on Monday, June 10, 2019 at the Concord Country Club.
The Lanagan Lecture is a major annual lecture named for Sally Lanagan, a beloved volunteer who was deeply involved with the Museum and had a passion for American art, the decorative arts, and historic preservation. To honor Sally and her memory each year, The Sally Lanagan Fund was established in 2012 by her family, as a tribute to Sally’s years of dedicated service to the Concord Museum. Through this endowed lectureship, the Museum offers each year a presentation by a prominent scholar on a topic that is aligned with her interests.
Concord’s renowned literary tradition takes a creative twist during the holiday season when the Concord Museum opens the annual Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature. A benefit exhibition with related programs, Family Trees fills the Museum with trees and wreaths of all shapes and sizes fancifully dressed for the occasion with charming original ornaments inspired by a dazzling selection of children’s picture books. Family Trees is organized by the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers, chaired in 2018 by Patty Flint and Pam Nelson.
Join friends of the Museum for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at our annual event celebrating the opening of Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature. Each year the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers Fête co-chairs host a beautiful night of holiday cheer! The 2018 Fête was held on November 30, 2018 in the Anna and Neil Rasmussen Education Center.
Guests are welcomed inside the front doors of gracious private Concord residences to visit the charming ground floor rooms. From Colonial to Victorian to Shingle Style and more, each house will be decorated in a different holiday theme. The Concord Museum welcomes you to spend the day in Concord, a small town with a big history, and enjoy the elegant streets, charming cafés and shops, as well as the many historic homes. Organized by the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers, the 2018 Holiday House Tour was chaired by Leah Butler and Lisanne Wheeler, and was held on Saturday, December 1st, 2018.
July 27
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...
July 31
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...
August 02
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. Inside the Anna and Neil Rasmussen Education Center...
August 07
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...
August 10
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,...
August 15
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...
August 17
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...
August 17
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....
August 22
A staged reading of “I Want to Go to Jail”, an original play by Pamela Swing, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Dabanka, Brandeis undergraduate performed in period costumes by cast members from We Did it For You! Women’s Journey Through History. The performance will be followed by a discussion with the cast and a question and answer session with the...
September 07
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...
September 12
Middlebury College professor William Nash will discuss what can be learned about Helen Thoreau and Concord through the scrapbooks she kept chronicling events of the 1840's - two of which are part of the Middlebury Library's Special Collections. A witty and engaging speaker, Will Nash is Professor of American Studies and English and American Literatures...
September 19
Jay Robert Stiefel, historian of Colonial Philadelphia society and its material culture, will introduce the life and work of English emigrant joiner John Head (1688-1754). Head’s Philadelphia account book is the earliest and most complete to have survived from any cabinetmaker working in either Great Britain or British North America. The culmination of nearly...
September 21
Visitors will follow in Paul Revere’s footsteps as we retrace the journey he took on horseback the night of April 18, 1775 to warn colonists about the approach of the British regulars. First-person interpreters playing Concord residents who were eyewitnesses to the events of that fateful night and day will add a deeper level of...
September 25
The Concord Museum and The Old Manse welcome you a screening of Nature: A Walking Play (TigerLion Arts), which tells the story of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau’s friendship. The film documents the unique outdoor play which captures the complex relationship between these two characters and nature itself. Following the screening, the audience...