Historic Northampton will be closed December 24, 2022 - January 31, 2023.
Please see the Program Calendar for January 2023 presentations & events.
Read Historic Northampton's latest email announcements.
February 2023 Program Reminder Email Announcement
Live Music in America and in (and around) Northampton with Steve Waksman
Slavery in Northampton | Recovering Indigenous Histories
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Acknowledging Indigenous History

Here, we acknowledge that we stand on Indigenous land, inhabited by Native American people for roughly 11,000 years, since the glaciers receded. This place that we now call Northampton was known to Native people as Nonotuck or Norwottuck. Nonotuck homelands stretched across both sides of the Kwinitekw (now called the Connecticut River), including the present-day towns of Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield, South Hadley, Northampton, and Easthampton.
Nonotuck people were closely connected, through trade, diplomacy, and kinship, to other Native communities in the region: the Quaboag in present-day Brookfield; the Agawam in present-day Springfield; the Woronoco in present-day Westfield; the Pocumtuck in present-day Deerfield; and the Sokoki in present-day Northfield. During the early 1600s, these Native groups engaged in reciprocal trade relations with English colonial settlers and with other Native nations. By the late 1600s, however, the pressures of colonial warfare forced many Native families to relocate, taking shelter in other Native territories. We offer condolences for the Nonotuck people who were forced to leave their homeland, while also offering gratitude for the Native communities that took them in.

Despite the loss of land due to colonial settlement, a number of Native nations have persisted across the territory that we now call “New England.” These include: the Nipmuc to the East; the Wampanoag and Narragansett to the Southeast; the Mohegan, Pequot, and Schaghticoke to the South; the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican to the West; and the Abenaki to the North, among others. Recognizing that the entirety of the North American continent constitutes Indigenous homelands, we affirm, honor, and respect the sovereignty of these and hundreds of other Indigenous Native American and First Nations peoples who survive today.

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Upcoming Events
Historic Northampton and the Northampton Center for the Arts present
Live Music in (and Around) Northampton: A Presentation & Panel Discussion
Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2 pm
In Person in the Flex at 33 Hawley Street, Northampton
Please note: Masks are required for this in-person event.

Inspired by Steve Waksman’s recent book, Live Music in America, this panel discussion will focus on the past few decades of Northampton’s live music scene and the city’s musical life more broadly. A panel of local music insiders will reflect on the scene’s history since the 1970s, its present, and where it might go next. Preceding the panel discussion will be a brief presentation by Dylan Gaffney of Forbes Library, who will share archival photos and other materials to illustrate some of the venues and events that have defined Northampton music through the years.

The panel will be moderated by Steve Waksman, Smith College Professor of Music, and will feature:
  • Beth Caurant, founder and guitarist, Lilith
  • Joan Holliday, Program Director and afternoon drive host on WRSI, 93.9 The River
  • Neal Robinson, Iron Horse Music Hall|Race Street Live
  • Glenn Siegel, founder, Magic Triangle Jazz Series and co-founder, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares
Tizzy playing at the Bay State Hotel in October 2000.   Seth Kaye Photography.
Pre-registration is strongly recommended to reserve a seat.
Sliding scale admission: $5-20.
Students: Free of charge

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Black Bears in Massachusetts
A Zoom presentation by Dave Wattles, Black Bear and Furbearer Biologist for Mass Wildlife
Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 7 pm
Dave Wattles will describe the history of the black bear population in Massachusetts and its remarkable recovery during the last fifty years. In addition to bear ecology, he will discuss the results of fifteen years of radio and GPS collaring research, some of it conducted in Northampton. The collar data has revealed information on reproduction, survival, causes of mortality, habitat use, and movement. Wattles will also talk about coexisting with bears. 

In partnership with the Broad Brook Coalition and the Rowe Park Commission, Rowe, Massachusetts. 

Register for the Zoom link.
Sliding scale admission: $5-25.

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Crows & Connecticut Valley's Crow Roost: A Spectacular Winter Event
Sunday, February 5, 2023 with Naturalist Patti Steinman
Zoom Presentation | 2-3 pm | Register
Field Trip to the Roost in Springfield | 4:45 pm|Register
In colonial America, crows were considered pests and a serious nuisance to crops. Northampton’s first crow bounty was in 1735, and bounties continued in the nineteenth century. Through the World War II era, crows were poisoned and hunted, and their roosts were bombed.
 
Recent new research about their intelligence and complex social behavior has led to a new understanding and appreciation for crows and their impressive fall and winter roosts. For the last two decades, Patti Steinman, a naturalist at MassAudubon, has been studying crows and the City of Springfield’s Crow Roost, one of the largest in the state. At this time of year, it is the nightly gathering spot for about 10,000 crows—including all the crows that you see in Northampton during the day.
 
Steinman’s program will include two components, an informational zoom presentation about crows--from the complex ways that different cultures and traditions have treated them to their natural history—followed by a field trip (limited to 20) to the Springfield Roost to observe crows.

Pre-registration is required.

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Religion and Slavery in Colonial New England
​A Zoom Presentation by Dr. Kenneth Minkema
Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 7 pm
 From 1729 until 1750, Northampton’s minister was Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), an internationally known philosopher, theologian, and leader of the Great Awakening spiritual revival. While in Northampton, he enslaved three people –Venus, Leah, and Rose.  After his move to Stockbridge in 1751, he enslaved three others—a married couple named Joseph and Sue, and a boy named Titus.  In his writings and from the pulpit, Edwards defended the practice of slavery. How and why could a minister uphold the ownership of people and deny basic human rights?
 
In this presentation, Dr. Kenneth Minkema will examine some of the theological and religious justifications for, and critiques of, slavery and the slave trade, as they were expressed from the colonial incursion in the early seventeenth century to the eighteenth century when Jonathan Edwards and his followers were active. 

Register for the Zoom link.
Sliding scale admission: $5-25.

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Jonathan Edwards by Joseph Badger
Courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery
From Nonotuck to Northampton: Recovering Indigenous Histories
A Zoom Presentation with Margaret M. Bruchac
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Associate Faculty in Cultural Heritage, and Coordinator of Native American
and Indigenous Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 7 pm

Historic Northampton’s newly launched “Indigenous Histories” (access here on our website) features the scholarship of Dr. Margaret M. Bruchac. The centerpiece is a resource-rich and extended essay titled “From Nonotuck to Northampton: Recovering Indigenous Histories,” which re-examines colonial era encounters between Nonotuck and settlers, offers Indigenous perspectives, and gives readers the tools to better understand the historical record. The website also includes a visual history, maps, links to relevant historical publications and documents, and more.
 
Join Dr. Bruchac for a presentation about her research, followed by a question and answer period.

Register for the Zoom link.
Sliding scale admission: $5-25.
Students: Free of charge

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Margaret Bruchac, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, with Native steatite cooking pot from an unidentified site in Quaboag territory in Brookfield, MA. This pot, one of many collected by Amherst College, is now housed in the Historic Northampton collection.
Photo courtesy of Margaret Bruchac.
Online resources to explore Northampton history at home
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Face masks in both adult and children's sizes are available near the front entrance