Historic Northampton's exhibit gallery
will be closed for the winter season from January 1 - February 28, 2025
will be closed for the winter season from January 1 - February 28, 2025
Be our "match maker"
this Valentine's Day. We're very close to meeting our $200,000 Challenge Match. Any donation given between now through February 14, 2025, will be matched dollar-for-dollar doubling your impact. Contributions between $500 to $1,000 will be tripled. |
Upcoming Events
Slavery and Freedom in Northampton and in the Colonial North:
A Four-Part Lecture Series
A Four-Part Lecture Series
In Partnership with the Northampton Reparations Study Commission
Of Bondage and Isolation: Meditations on the Lives of Black Women
Enslaved in the Pioneer Valley
Enslaved in the Pioneer Valley
Dr. Jennifer DeClue, Smith College
Moderated by Gina Nortonsmith, Archivist, Northeastern University and Historic Northampton Board Member
Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 7 pm
On Zoom
On Zoom
Dr. Jennifer DeClue will present the second lecture in
the Slavery in Northampton and in the colonial North lectures series on February 18, 2025. |
The names of Black women enslaved by the powerful men remembered in history as “River Gods” can be found in their diaries, account books, wills, probate inventories, and church records. These records do the good work of offering confirmation that John Stoddard owned a woman called Elizabeth; that Jonathan Edwards owned Leah and Rose and Venus; that the Dwight family owned Sylvia Church; and that the Phelps family owned Peg and Rose and Phillis and Rose's daughter Phillis.
Smith College professor Jennifer DeClue will discuss how these archival records make incontrovertible the fact of slavery’s violent history in the valley, but leave many questions unanswered. Dr. DeClue will work to paint a clearer picture of what life might have been like for Black women enslaved here, in the long years before abolition would unfold in Massachusetts. |
Upcoming Lectures
More information and registration will be forthcoming
More information and registration will be forthcoming
Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 on Zoom at 7 pm |
Living and Laboring in the Business
of Slavery in Rhode Island Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara Thursday, April 10, 2025
on Zoom at 7 pm |
Blood on the Snow: A Staged Reading
A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place
A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place
Wednesday, March 5, 2025 or Thursday, March 6, 2025 | 6:30 pm
Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main Street, Northampton, MA
Reservations are strongly recommended. Sliding scale admission.
Historic Northampton, in collaboration with Plays In Place and in partnership with the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, proudly
presents two staged readings of Blood on the Snow. |
On March 5, 1770, British soldiers in Boston killed four unarmed civilians and wounded eight more in what is known today as the Boston Massacre. This play focuses on the events that took place the day after--March 6, 1770—when the leaders of Boston gathered in the Council Chamber of what is now the Old State House and made decisions that placed Massachusetts on the road to revolution. These live readings will be the first time this play has been performed outside of Boston.
The live performance will be directed by Brianna Sloane and feature local professional actors, many of whom performed in Pulling at the Roots at Historic Northampton in 2023 and 2024. The actors include: Matt Haas, Bill Stewart, Gabriel Levey, Andrew Roberts, Marcus Neverson, Lindel Hart, Scott Braidman, Luke Haskell, Rich Vaden, and Patrick Toole. Each hour-long performance will be followed by a discussion with the playwright and a historian. |
Road Trip!
A Visit to The New York Historical, with a Special Tour of the exhibition Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of
What Women Wore, featuring clothing from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection
What Women Wore, featuring clothing from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection
Date: Saturday, March 15, 2025
7:30 AM Departure from Northampton’s Sheldon Field (26 Old Ferry Road, Northampton, MA)
5:30 PM Depart from New York City, arriving in Northampton by 9:00 PM
7:30 AM Departure from Northampton’s Sheldon Field (26 Old Ferry Road, Northampton, MA)
5:30 PM Depart from New York City, arriving in Northampton by 9:00 PM
Price: $100 per person. Pre-registration is required.
Join Historic Northampton co-directors and Kiki Smith, Smith College professor of theatre, clothing historian, and author, on a special visit to the exhibition Kiki Smith conceived and curated: Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore at The New York Historical.
Featuring garments from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection, the exhibit reveals the history, economics, and stories behind the everyday fashion worn by women over the last two centuries. Since its opening last September, reviewers have spotlighted Real Clothes, Real Lives as one of the most important new exhibits on display. It will close in June 2025. Our group will be treated to private, docent-led tours of the exhibit. There will be time to view other exhibitions at The New York Historical and explore New York City on your own. |
Acknowledging Indigenous history
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.
Learn More
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.
Learn More
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