Focus On Cooking
Blog Posts
- Mining Collections for Dress History in Deerfield
My time in Deerfield kicked off in September 2025 with my attendance at Historic Deerfield’s fabulous Fall Forum… Connecting students and readers of Survey of Historic Costume to the homespun movement prior to the American Revolution became a germ of an idea from the Fall Forum. This symbolic form of economic protest in the hands, needles, and looms of women offered a story told by connecting the collections at Deerfield. - Call for Papers — “The Local and the Global in New England”
This one-day symposium aims to gather scholars and researchers who explore the nature of local, regional, and global networks in New England from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. - Call for Papers — 2026 Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife
In June 2026, the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife will mark its 50th anniversary by looking both backwards and ahead. As this year’s seminar looks forward to its own future, we will contemplate ways residents of the region have envisioned, foretold, and worked to shape various futures over the region’s long history.
Cooking Events
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April School Vacation Week: Spies, Ciphers, and Secret Codes
Play historical tavern and schoolyard games. Pretend to cook a meal on a hearth in our play kitchen. Dress up, read a book, or weave on a loom.
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A Stake in the Ground: 1774
Produced by Plays in Place, “A Stake in the Ground: 1774,” is a series of three site-specific plays on the eve of the American Revolution.
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Juneteenth Commemoration: Witness Stones Walking Tours
Join us for a guided walking tour of some of the Witness Stones that commemorate the lives of enslaved individuals who lived in Deerfield during the 18th century.
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Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789
By posing new questions about fashion’s relationship with class, race, and gender, Dressing the Revolution: Fashion and Politics 1760–1789 places clothing at the center of the political debates, shedding light on dress as a powerful tool that communicated not just status and identity, but political affinities during this volatile period.
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A Town Divided: Deerfield in the Age of Revolution
While many associate the Revolution with Boston or battlefield sites, A Town Divided brings the promises—and contradictions—of the Revolution to life through the lens of a deeply divided rural town in western Massachusetts.
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Dublin Seminar 2026 – Futurecasting, Futurekeeping: New Englanders Imagine Worlds to Come
As this year’s seminar looks forward to its own future, we will contemplate ways residents of the region (broadly construed) have envisioned, foretold, and worked to shape various futures over the region’s long history.
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Open Hearth Cooking Workshop: Spring Cooking, Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel
In the past, the end of winter meant using up what was left of stored food like pumpkins, potatoes, apples, and salted meat and fish. A Deerfield diarist called them “savers.” The menu includes dried apple pie, fish chowder, pickled beets, and crookneck squash pudding.
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3-Day Wood Identification Workshop with Randy Wilkinson
We are pleased to share this exciting, intensive educational program designed to appeal to participants with an interest in American decorative arts—including collectors, appraisers, curators, furniture enthusiasts, or anyone seeking in-depth knowledge.
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Free Winter Lecture Series: “Expansive Histories of the American Revolution”
This series will explore the American Revolution not just as a political conflict, but as a broad and complex global event that profoundly shaped the lives of everyone in the colonies.
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Open Hearth Cooking Demonstration: Great Cakes!
During the 18th century, towns in New England held muster days for men to practice military drills. These became community affairs and people made special food, including a treat that became known as Muster Cake.