Hand hooked wool rug depicting 7 of our village buildings in Springtime. Taken from a painting by Anne Bell Robb, a MA artist. 2’ x 3’.
2010 American Heritage Chocolate Celebration
February 13, 2010
11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Hall Tavern Visitor Center
Looking to satisfy both the history buff and the sweet tooth in you? There is no better way than to enjoy a fun-filled day with sweet chocolate aromas, captivating lectures, and most important—chocolate treats! The seventh annual American Heritage Chocolate Celebration at Historic Deerfield is an exploration of everything chocolate including a sumptuous array of gourmet chocolate desserts, foods, and beverages prepared by Champney’s Restaurant & Tavern at the Deerfield Inn. Click here for a schedule of activities.
Throughout the day, enjoy a wide range of activities including Valentine-themed family-friendly arts and crafts, wagon rides, demonstrations, lectures, and tours of museum houses. Also back by popular demand—American Heritage Chocolate® will be featured in a wide variety of rich dishes, as will be for sale at the Museum Store. A re-creation of colonial American chocolate produced by the Historic Division of Mars, Inc., American Heritage Chocolate® is the perfect way to experience chocolate as early New Englanders did.
It’s a chocolate-filled weekend that is sure to please chocolate experts and lovers alike. Curator of Historic Interiors, Amanda Lange, will present her research on chocolate in early New England in a talk titled “Sweet Concoctions: A History of Chocolate in Early America.” Bob Heiss, food professional and owner/proprietor of Cooks Shop Here in Northampton, MA, will give a special talk and tasting titled “Exploring and Tasting a Favorite Treat.” Rick Lopez, Associate Professor of History from Amherst College will present “Chocolate: Drink of Empire.” Visit with Susan McLellan Plaisted, Proprietress of Heart to Hearth Cookery, as she roasts cacao beans by the hearth and grinds them on a metate, and discover how cacao grows and hear about the special little insect that pollinates the plant.
Historic Deerfield guides will also present highlights tours of the Museum’s Attic focusing on collections associated with the preparation and serving of stimulating beverages, such as tea, coffee and chocolate. See master silversmith Steve Smithers as he works to recreate a silver chocolate pot from the Historic Deerfield collection. Taste American Heritage Chocolate®, and create your own Valentine using decorative papers. Special Event Admission: Adults $12,Youth (6-17) $5, under 6 and members free.
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News
Join needlework experts and Historic Deerfield staff for a day of embroidery exploration and the launch of the new Marietta Stebbins sampler kit on Sat., Sept. 25. Joanne Harvey, owner of The Examplarery, will guide participants in using her kit to recreate Stebbins’ sampler.
Programs
New! Join museum educators in this fun family program to learn about bees and honey. Taste different kinds of honey, and make a beeswax candle to take home. Included with general admission.
In conjunction with the exhibition Dinner is Served!, Historic Deerfield will offer a chance for homeschool families to discuss how changing history and material culture influenced the dinner table.
Join Joanne Harvey for a workshop focused on reproducing the Marietta Stebbins’ 1801 sampler. Pre-registration required by September 17. Download the Information and Registration Form, or please contact Julie Orvis Marcinkiewicz at (413) 775-7179 or jmarcinkiewicz [at] historic-deerrfield [dot] org.
Historic Deerfield’s open hearth cooks will prepare select dishes that are on display in the Sheldon House, Hinsdale and Anna Williams House, and Stebbins House as part of the exhibition Dinner is Served!: Dining and the Decorative Arts. Come see “what’s cooking” and learn how these dishes were prepared in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Included with general admission.
New! Join Historic Deerfield and the Deerfield Inn for a fun and educational opportunity to learn more about tea drinking in colonial Deerfield. Pre-registration is required by September 22. For more information or to register, please call 413-774-5587.
Special fundraiser to support our local PBS station and WGBY. Gain access to experts from the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America (ADA).
Come meet Tukufu Zuberi from the PBS hit series History Detectives at a special live show to benefit WGBY. Pre-registration required. For tickets and more information, please call WGBY at 800-781-9429, or log on to wgby.org.
The kitchen was the center of activity in the Colonial era. Food preparation took a great deal of time, and children were expected to help with the many chores of meal time. Families are invited to come to the History Workshop where they can learn about making a colonial dinner through role playing.
Visitors of all ages are invited to attend a performance by musician and folklorist Cliff McGann who grew up outside of Boston with a strong connection to family in Nova Scotia. Today he continues to study, perform, and interpret music and folklore of both New England and Nova Scotia. He performs as a solo artist, and also regularly with The Boston Kiltics, a New England-based Celtic music and dance troupe. Included with general admission.
No matter your level of interest or ability to collect antiques, there will be something for everybody at the 2010 ADA/Historic Deerfield Antiques Show. The two-day event will include more than 50 of the country’s leading antique dealers selling thousands of rare antiques—from furniture and carpets to books and quilts.
Historic Deerfield will offer a Colonial Tavern Night on Saturday, October 9, focusing on the traditional New England harvest and featuring live entertainment by Bob Olsen as magician Mr. Potter and music by the Merry Players. For Colonial Tavern Night reservations, please call 413-775-7179 or e-mail events [at] historic-deerfield [dot] org.
Historic Deerfield’s open hearth cooks will prepare select dishes that are on display in the Sheldon House, Hinsdale and Anna Williams House, and Stebbins House as part of the exhibition Dinner is Served!: Dining and the Decorative Arts. Come see “what’s cooking” and learn how these dishes were prepared in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Included with general admission.
Join us for an Archaeological Walking Tour with Bob Paynter, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Enjoy a guided tour of the Old Burying Ground with a guide from Historic Deerfield at 11:30 a.m. Free and open to the public.
Enjoy the fun of Halloween and the beauty of harvest during the fall season. Historic Deerfield presents seasonal hearth cooking, pumpkin decorating, wagon rides, mask-making, and face painting. Wear a costume and enjoy some early trick-or-treating at select historic houses. Included with general admission.
Come learn about early 19th-century cookery as an open hearth cook makes dishes from “receipts” (or recipes) from The American Frugal Housewife written by Lydia Maria Child in 1829. This cookbook was one of the most widely used and reprinted cookbooks in American culinary history. Included with general admission.
Families will make a holiday gift to give to someone special. With thread and a needle museum educators will help visitors embroider a small design or initials on a cloth napkin. Make a unique napkin ring to go along with the napkin, and tie it up with a ribbon. Then decorate a card, and put it a gift bag. Included with general admission.
Historic Deerfield will offer a symposium that explores design and proportion in early American furniture and architecture through lectures by international experts and hands-on workshops by master cabinetmakers.
New! Join Historic Deerfield and the Deerfield Inn for a fun and educational opportunity to learn more about tea drinking in colonial Deerfield. Pre-registration is required by November 10. For more information or to register, please call 413-774-5587.
Meet Jennifer Lee, Algonkian descendant, artist and re-enactor. Lee will be at Historic Deerfield to share material culture and customs as a historical Algonkian woman. Through basket-making demonstrations and conversation, she will help visitors understand the persistence of Native American life and culture into the present. Also enjoy open hearth cooking demonstrations, and craft a hand-made gift with the help of a museum educator. Included with general admission.
Meet members of the Society of the 17th Century, a group of re-enactors who will bring our historic Hall Tavern building to life with an incredible array of period arts, crafts, and trades that represent 17th-century English life. Included with general admission.
Help create beautiful natural wreaths to decorate the doorways of Deerfield.
Join President Philip Zea on a trip to The Connecticut Historical Society and the Florence Griswold Museum to view two exhibitions, one of which features embroidery from Historic Deerfield’s collection: Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art, and Family, 1740-1840, and With Needle and Brush: Schoolgirl Embroidery From the Connecticut River Valley.
Exhibitions
Examine one of the finest collections of early American textiles and costumes ever assembled!
Explore a dazzling array of masterworks by famous American cabinetmakers including Duncan Phyfe and Honoré Lannuier, Samuel McIntire, John and Thomas Seymour, and John Townsend. Included with general admission.
In collaboration with the Museums10 consortium and the region-wide partnership “Table for 10: The Art, History and Science of Food,” Historic Deerfield’s new exhibition will explore the social, cultural, and artistic importance of dining in early America with displays in the lobby of the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, as well as in three dining rooms of historic houses.
Museum Store
New! Doorways of Deerfield features 16 historic houses and buildings throught the village of Old Deerfield. Under each doorway is the name of the house or building. Photographer Dan Dougherty. Poster comes rolled ready for you to frame. 18” x 24”
80 pages of full color photos by Richard Cheek celebrating the four seasons in the historic village.
Support Historic Deerfield with this 100% cotton twill cap.
