Getting Vaccinated:
Portraits from the Northampton Clinic

In May of 2021, Paul Shoul photographed people just after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and the volunteers and health professionals working at the Northampton Senior Center Vaccine Clinic. Click here to see the portraits.
COVID-19 Update:
Historic Northampton is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
See Facebook, Instagram & Twitter for new ways to stay connected to Historic Northampton.
Upcoming Programs
Thursday, May 13, 2021 | 10 am to 12 noon | Masks Required
Friday, May 14, 2021 | 6 to 8 pm | Masks Required
Exploring Northampton: The Northampton State Hospital and its grounds
A Walking Tour with co-directors Elizabeth Sharpe and Laurie Sanders
Expansive fields associated with the former Northampton State Hospital grounds and now managed by Smith Vocational & Agricultural High School
Join co-directors Elizabeth Sharpe and Laurie Sanders on a two-hour exploration of the former Northampton State hospital and its grounds to learn more about its human and natural history.
A CDC-approved face mask is required.  Participants will also need to social distance - to keep a safe space between themselves and other people who are not from their household.
Each tour is limited to 20 participants.
Admission Fee:
$10 donors and members
$15 non-members
Learn More | Register
Thursday, May 20, 2021 | 7 pm | On Zoom
Reading the Hadley Deed of 1660: A Primary Source Excursion
Alice Nash, Associate Professor of History at University of Massachusetts at Amherst
A Map of New-England from William Hubbard’s Narratives of the Troubles with Indians . . . (Boston, 1677).
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library
“Indian deeds” are English documents that record land transactions between English colonists and Indigenous peoples in New England. They can be problematic and difficult to read, but they are also an extraordinary source of insight and information. In this interactive workshop, Professor Nash will analyze the Hadley deed of 1660 and then examine it in relation to John Pynchon’s fur trade account books of 1659 and 1660.  Read together, these two documents draw a clearer picture of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the English.  When you register for the workshop, we will email the documents to you. Participants who read them in advance will get the most out of the discussion. 

​Admission is a Sliding Scale $0 - $20.
Learn More | Register

History At Home

Historic Northampton has
fun & educational activities
online for the whole family.
Click here for more!
 Picture
Restoring the Shepherd Barn
Funded by the Northampton Community Preservation Act and Private Donors
The Local Experience of COVID-19
Reflections, artwork, music & photographs submitted by area residents ages 5 to 93
Online resources to explore Northampton history at home

Online Collections

Search the online collections catalog for historic photographs and artifacts

lOCAL History Websites

View Northampton history websites
with primary source documents

mAPS & ATLASES

Find the street or house where you
live on a 19th century atlas
Historic Northampton mourns the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and we condemn the long history of violence and discrimination that led to their murders.  
 
As a history museum, our organization is committed to telling the whole story of Northampton's past and to confronting how racism, prejudice and privilege have shaped that story.  We take seriously our responsibility to uncover the lives of people who were denied basic human rights, marginalized during their lifetimes, and erased from the historical record.  Lessons from these lives show us how racism has been woven into the fabric of our history and culture, where it lies today. Historic Northampton is committed to speaking the truth about discrimination and power and working for positive change, in memory of George Floyd and the countless black Americans whose tragic deaths preceded his.