Learn about the story behind the Lock and Key from the Concord jail where Henry David Thoreau spent a night in protest of a government that supported the evil of slavery. Thoreau’s night in jail resulted in him writing one of his most widely read and influential essays, “Civil Disobedience,” highlighting this non-violent protest. This […]

Learn how a fancy silk and wool shoe connects to the important role women played in boycotting goods from England during the American Revolution. In the 18th century, American milliners often imported fancy English shoes for sale to their customers, but unpopular tax laws from the British government led colonists to protest by refusing to purchase items imported […]

Learn about the story behind the tea kettle that Louisa May Alcott used while serving as a nurse for the Union Army in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War. Alcott is most famous as the author of Little Women, but years prior she wrote “Hospital Sketches,” based on her now-lost letters home which she reported were […]

Jack Garrison lived as a free man in Concord during the first half of the 19th century. He’d been enslaved in New Jersey until he fled to Massachusetts in 1810. In Concord, he began working as a laborer for hire and married Susan Robbins Middleton, an ardent civil rights activist. Together they raised a family […]