Calendar of Events 

This winter’s series is devoted to re-centering indigenous peoples’ experience and perspectives within broader American narratives and histories. Each presenter will share new scholarship and insights that bring to light Native men and women as active participants and autonomous history makers.

Join us this winter to prepare and eat savory and sweet dishes of the past under the guidance of our experienced Open Hearth Cooks. The menus this year are inspired by the recollections of Epaphras Hoyt (born 1765 in Deerfield) whose 1839 journal recounts daily life of his childhood, including food and cookery.

This new exhibition highlights 18th- and 19th-century Asian decorative arts and their imitations, drawn from the museum’s rich collection. The exhibition explores how Western craftsmen adapted Asian decorative arts into a design vocabulary more familiar to them and their customers, and highlights New Englanders’ own quest for these imported goods.

Join us for this three-session course that takes an in-depth look at Chinese porcelain exported to the West. Each insightful class will be divided into a lecture and a study session. Participants will have the rare opportunity to see objects from the museum's collection up close.

This day-long symposium will explore the art and material culture of New England travel from 1700-1950.

During April School Vacation week, come visit with our hearth cooks as they prepare family-style dinners like they did in early New England. Help mix batter, churn butter, and learn about the mail meal of the day – dinner!

Travel back in time and rediscover the history behind the Patriot’s Day holiday and the “shot heard round the world.” Revolutionary times will come to life through demonstrations of period crafts and activities, fife and drum music, and a muster.

School Vacation Week

Stenciling is an early form of interior decorating that is still popular today.  Come to the History Workshop to learn about this wonderful art form and find out about the early New England itinerant artists who traveled from home to home decorating walls.  Join us for some wall stenciling and make a beautiful stenciled artwork to take with you.  Fun for all ages.

Historic Deerfield One-Day Decorative Arts Forum

In 2016, the ledger of Lemuel Adams, the shop principal of the Hartford, Connecticut, cabinetmaking firm Kneeland & Adams (1792-1795), was discovered.  It featured the shop’s financial accounts, biographical information, customer lists, shop output, and other previously unknown information – leading to new scholarship on the firm and its larger network of cabinetmaking firms in southern New England.  This forum will provide context for and a summary of the ongoing research of the firm.

By the time spring came, early New Englanders had just about used up their supply of stored and preserved food. Discover the meaning of “scraping the bottom of the barrel” and learn why people of the past eagerly awaited the first fresh foods of the season like asparagus, eggs, and milk.

Stenciling is an early form of interior decorating that is still popular today.  Come to the History Workshop to learn about this wonderful art form and find out about the early New England itinerant artists who traveled from home to home decorating walls.  Join us for some wall stenciling and make a beautiful stenciled artwork to take with you.  Fun for all ages.

The Connecticut River Valley is one of the best places to study geology in the world. It displays an amazing array of dramatic and even unique geologic events. The Valley’s geologic heritage also creates the environment for diverse human achievements. During this 5-day program, you will learn about the the amazing story found in the rocks.