Making it on Main Street: An Exhibit at Historic Northampton
Open Wednesday - Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm
Open Wednesday - Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm
Masks are recommended, but optional.
Face masks in both adult and children's sizes are available at the front entrance.
Face masks in both adult and children's sizes are available at the front entrance.
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for new ways to stay connected to Historic Northampton.
for new ways to stay connected to Historic Northampton.
Drawing on Fashion: A Workshop by Artist Betsy Stone
Saturday, November 18, 2023 | 2 to 4 pm
Historic Northampton’s clothing and accessories collection of 7,500 items is considered one of the premiere collections in the U.S. In addition to garments, it includes shoes, hats, purses, canes, and other accessories, mostly from local people.
In this special drawing workshop, participants will get a chance to sketch articles from Historic Northampton’s collection that have rarely—if ever—been on display. Artist Betsy Stone will provide guidance on how to render details like a garment’s drape, fold, and form. She will explain the special features that make each dress representative of its period. Charcoal, paper, and pencil will be provided. Ages 14+ all levels of experience. Sliding scale: $12-25 |
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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