2021 Events & Programs

With Emma Winter Zeig of Historic Northampton

Get to know your historical neighbors in a walking tour of Bridge Street Cemetery. We will “meet” some Northampton residents–like Revolutionary War patriot Joseph Hawley, Samuel Bartlett of witchcraft accusation fame, Indigenous spinner and weaver Sally Maminash, Sylvia Church–a woman who was enslaved in Northampton, and a family who were all killed in the Mill River Flood. Along the way, we will examine changing artisanry and symbolism of gravestone design. Pre-registration is required. Each tour is limited to 15.

A Zoom Lecture by Penina Glazer

A casual walk down Northampton’s Main Street during the 1940s and 50s would have included Federal Hardware, Ziff Package Store, Ann August shops, and David’s Bootery. All of these Main Street shops–and several other businesses nearby–were owned and operated by a small group of Jewish families who settled in Northampton around the turn of the 20th century. Who were these people and why did they choose Northampton? How did they fare here? And how did subsequent generations develop? Historian and Northampton resident Penina Glazer will address these questions and more as she explores the history of Northampton’s Jewish community and compares it to other Jewish communities in New England. She will also offer some valuable historical comparisons as the U.S. faces a new set of immigration issues today. Register for the Zoom link.

With Tom Riddell and Barbara B. Blumenthal

Join Tom Riddell and Barbara Blumenthal, both longtime members of the Northampton State Hospital Memorial Committee and current trustees of Historic Northampton, on a walking tour of the former campus of the Northampton State Hospital. Learn about the property’s human and institutional history.

In addition to their roles on the Northampton State Hospital Memorial Committee and Historic Northampton, Tom and Barbara have a longstanding interest in the hospital’s history. Barbara has lived near the state hospital grounds for more than 40 years. Before retiring from Smith College, Tom taught classes and gave public lectures on the history of the State Hospital.

Part of Exploring Northampton series

With Rob Weir

Rob Weir puts the “story” back into history with his new book, Who Knew? Roadside Revelations in Western Massachusetts.

Dr. Weir will tell the fascinating tales behind places and objects that we pass by but barely notice, including the West Street monument and the Adams Farm memorial on Florence Road. He will describe his sleuthing methods for separating fact from fiction.

Got a question about a monument in western Massachusetts? This would be a good time to ask.

A Gravesite Memorial and Zoom Panel Discussion

Hinųk Max̄iwi-Kerenąka (Winnebago/Ho-Chunk) whose name means “She Returns to the Sky” was also known by her English name Angel De Cora. She was an influential artist and illustrator, designer, teacher, and the first Native American graduate of Smith College (class of 1896). She brought Native American imagery into the graphic arts in respectful and resonant ways.

Join us as we honor De Cora’s life (1871-1919) and contributions on the 125th anniversary of her graduation from Smith College and 150th anniversary of her birth. All are invited at noon to walk from Historic Northampton to her grave in Bridge Street Cemetery where we will lay a wreath.  De Cora died in Northampton in 1919 from complications of the flu.  

At 2 pm, there will be a zoom presentation about De Cora’s life and work by scholars, curators, and artists: Yvonne Tiger (Cherokee, Seminole, Muscogee (Creek) Nations of Oklahoma); Kiara M. Vigil (Dakota/Apache); Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head-Aquinnah); Sunshine Thomas-Bear (Bear Clan, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska); and N.C. Christopher Couch.

A Zoom Presentation with Paula Giddings

Seneca Falls is where most people hear that the women’s movement was launched. But is that true? Who was and wasn’t a part of it? And what impact has the origin story had on the movement today? Relying on new research, nationally noted scholar and writer Paula Giddings will explore this important topic in American history.

Paula Giddings is the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor (Emerita), Africana Studies, at Smith College and editor emerita of Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism – a scholarly journal published at Smith.  In 2017, Ms. Giddings was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She is the author of four books.

A Zoom Presentation by co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders

Co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders will take the long view of Hawley Street, from the era of Glacial Lake Hitchcock to the present. During this zoom presentation, she’ll cover both the natural history changes over time as well as highlight some of the important people, businesses, and events that influenced today’s look at one of Northampton’s oldest byways.

This presentation is offered in partnership with A.P.E., School of Contemporary Dance & Thought, and the Northampton Community Arts Trust, and is part of a Fundraising Festival that will support both Historic Northampton and the public opening of the Workroom Theater at 33 Hawley, a 3800-square-foot, multi-arts space.

A Zoom film screening and Q & A with filmmaker William Ames and Kevin Friend

Join us and filmmaker Kevin Friend for a zoom screening of a new, 55-minute documentary that chronicles the life of Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969): a Smith College alumna, artist, activist, builder, inventor, birth control advocate, and leader of the women’s suffrage movement in Massachusetts. Ames was also a woman of privilege, but she was not afraid to shock polite society, and many of her ideas and goals still resonate.

The film will be followed by a Q & A with producer, Kevin Friend, and special guest, executive producer, and Ames relative, William Ames.

with co-director and author Elizabeth Sharpe

Join co-director Elizabeth Sharpe on a hike to the ruins of the Williamsburg reservoir dam in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.  On May 16, 1874, the 42-foot tall earthen dam suddenly burst, unleashing one hundred acres of water onto the valley below. Within an hour, the flood devastated the villages of Williamsburg, Skinnerville, Haydenville, and Leeds; 139 persons were dead.  It was the first major dam disaster in US history.

Dr. Sharpe will discuss the dam’s siting, construction, the flood itself, and the inquiry into who was responsible.  Elizabeth Sharpe is the author of In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874 (Free Press, 2004).

The trail is approximately 1.5 miles total, of moderate difficulty, with some steep, slippery, and rugged portions. 

This program is offered in conjunction with Williamsburg Woodland Trails.

Join co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders to learn more about the natural and human history of Beaver Brook, one of the important tributaries to the Mill River. The walk will include a mix of habitats – from a loop through the rocky oak woods to a chance to get your feet wet and look for crayfish, freshwater mussels, and other interesting aquatic invertebrates in the brook.

A Free Concert on the Lawn at Historic Northampton

Composed of musicians from across continents and cultures, Zikina creates new and beautiful music that will get you dancing, clapping, and connecting with the people around you. The group is led by Uganda native Gideon Ampeire , who will draw you in with a variety of traditional East African instruments, including enanga (zither), adungu (harp), and kalimba (thumb piano) – all of which he builds himself. Joining Ampeire is Northampton’s Mike Cardozo on guitar, Roston Kirk on bass, and Kade Parkin on drums.

Sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank.

With John Sinton and Gaby Immerman

The Mill River has played a fundamental role in the history of Northampton. To highlight its history, this summer Historic Northampton and the Mill River Greenway Initiative have offered a series of walks that highlight three important stretches in Northampton, with the final walk focusing on the stretch of river between Florence Fields and Look Park.
 
The walk will be led by John Sinton and Gaby Immerman, co-founders of the Mill River Greenway Initiative, and include a mix of cultural and natural history, plus share conceptual designs for possible routes for the Northampton portion of the "Mill River Greenway Shared Use Path."

With Kelsey Flynn

Kids from far and wide are invited to join improv comedian and PaintBox Theatre actor Kelsey Flynn for a morning of outdoor fun and shenanigans. They’ll spend their time together playing old-time favorites like sack races, three-legged races, and banana tag, and then wrap up their time together with an improv storytelling game involving one of the many iconic legends of Northampton–like the great Northampton National Bank Robbery of 1876! Participants will have the chance to re-tell their story together in small groups using a simple improv story structure with their own cast of characters they come up with on the spot. Then the fun culminates in a no-pressure sharing with a small audience of their family members.

Ages: First through fifth graders.
Limited to 12.

Kelsey Flynn is an improviser and teacher with over 25 years of experience. She has taught elementary-school improv locally in Northampton and Amherst in afterschool programs as well as at Western Massachusetts’ only improv theater, Happier Valley Comedy.

With Hayley Spizz

Since the 1830s, when Sylvester Graham first championed the benefits of exercise, to the present, Northampton residents have promoted and participated in a wide variety of physical activities. This summer, join Hayley Spizz on Historic Northampton’s grounds for an hour of Shake Your Soul, a fluid and fun movement event. Experience the joy of dance, release tension, nurture your body and soul, and delight in this dynamic practice. Hayley Spizz is a Certified Instructor in Shake Your Soul: The Yoga of Dance. All ages, levels of movement/dance experience, and fitness welcome.

Historic Northampton and the Fiddle Orchestra of Western Massachusetts (FOWM) invite you to an open rehearsal of the orchestra, followed by a special duet concert by music directors Annika Amstutz and Mia Friedman.

The repertoire will include music from the New England, American South, Celtic, Quebecois, and Scandinavian heritages, along with original compositions by contemporary musicians.

With The Follette Lab (Amherst College)

Can electrocuting a pickle teach you about the stars? Can oil and water show you how the earth was formed? Learn scientific history while you answer these questions and more! The Follette Lab is an astronomy research group at Amherst College and are hosting an event to show the public how the most simple science experiments are related to the forces that have shaped our entire universe, and how we study them. Talk with real astronomers (and astronomers in-training) from Amherst College, and ask all your astronomy questions! Free and open to the public.

With Laurie Sanders

During the last twenty years, the City of Northampton has protected more than 100 acres in the Parsons Brook Greenway. This landscape is underlain by outwash plains that were deposited 16,000-13,000 years ago, when braided glacial streams, choked with sands and sediments, flowed into Glacial Lake Hitchcock. Today, this area includes a mix of habitats, nearly all of which have been highly manipulated by people during the last fifty years.
 
Join co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders on a two-hour loop in a portion of the conservation area, through abandoned gravel pits and oak and pine woods, past ponds and marshes, and beside a stretch of Parsons Brook that reveals exposures of 200-million year old sandstone.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together brings people together to read aloud Frederick Douglass’s speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Copies of Douglass’ speech will be distributed to all in attendance. The public can take turns reading passages from it in succession.  People may simply attend, attend and read, or watch from home, thanks to Northampton Open Media. 

The speech was first delivered in 1852, in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. The themes addressed in the speech still resonate with Americans more than 150 years after they were written.  Now more than ever, the speech forces us to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the promises of democracy.
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Frederick Douglass had strong ties to the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Florence and spoke in downtown Northampton in the 1840s about slavery and the abolitionist movement.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together is a statewide initiative coordinated by Mass Humanities.  Now in its 12th year, the program will take place in 20 communities across Massachusetts.  The Northampton event is presented in partnership with State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa, Mass Humanities, Historic Northampton, Forbes Library, the David Ruggles Center, the Northampton Human Rights Commission, Healthy Hampshire, Pioneer Valley Workers Center, the League of Women Voters, the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee and the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership.

With Marla R. Miller, Director of the Public History Program & Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Professor Miller will share stories uncovered in the writing of her latest book Entangled Lives: Labor, Livelihood, and Landscapes of Change in Early Massachusetts (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).

The records, artifacts, and homes of Valley families in the era of and after the American Revolution yield glimpses into a wide range of experience, from the white and Native women who labored as domestic servants, to enslaved and free Black workers, to white tavernkeepers and caregivers. Learning about how these stories have been both preserved and obscured helps us think about our own roles as pastkeepers today.

Image: Pieced quilt, “King David’s Crown,” attributed to Susan Lorinda Brigham (Munroe) Shepherd (1821-1897) of Northampton, circa 1850. Photograph by David Stansbury

with Laurie Sanders, Co-director and Naturalist and Elizabeth Sharpe, Co-director

Talk a stroll along the bike path in Leeds. Elizabeth Sharpe, co-director, will show how this stretch of the path played a critical role during the Mill River Reservoir Disaster of 1874. Laurie Sanders, co-director and naturalist, will highlight the plants that live along the border.

In partnership with Leeds Civic Association and the Mill River Greenway Initiative.

A Walking Tour led by John Sinton and Gaby Immerman

The Mill River has played a fundamental role in the history of Northampton.  To highlight its significance, this summer Historic Northampton and the Mill River Greenway Initiative will offer a series of walks that highlight three important stretches in Northampton.

The walks will be led by John Sinton and Gaby Immerman, co-founders of the Mill River Greenway Initiative, and include a mix of Indigenous, industrial, and natural history, plus share conceptual designs for possible routes for the Northampton portion of the “Mill River Greenway Shared Use Path.”

The June walk will cover the stretch from Smith College to Federal Street.

A Presentation & Demonstration by Bob LaPalme

In the past, almost everyone carried a pocket knife.  That’s because knives were critical tools, with designs developed for specific purposes. Their usefulness went well beyond sharpening a writing quill or whittling a stick. In fact, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, no matter what your trade — ferrrier, gardener, carpenter, sailor, seamstress … you name it — you owned a specific knife to help you accomplish specific tasks.
 
In this presentation, local expert Bob LaPalme will showcase some of the knives in his personal collection to highlight the evolution of knife technology, their designs, uses, and cultural significance.  His demonstration will be followed by a Q & A.

Bob LaPalme grew up in the West Farms section of Northampton in an era where every boy carried a jackknife. Now a resident of Westhampton, he began collecting jackknives about 35 years ago.

With Robert T. McMaster, Author and Ecologist

Robert McMaster will speak about his new book, the first full-length biography of Edward Hitchcock (1793-1864).  Hitchcock was one of the brightest stars in American science and philosophy in the nineteenth century.

The son of a hatter and farmer of Deerfield, Massachusetts, Hitchcock was expected to pursue a farmer’s life, but early on he developed a “strong relish” for science.  He became a pioneer in paleontology, a minister, the first State Geologist of Massachusetts, and president of Amherst College.  Deeply religious, he sought to reconcile religion and science.

A Walking Tour led by Laurie Sanders, Co-director and Naturalist

Take a walk along the shoreline of glacial lake Hitchcock and see plants that 12,000 years later are influenced by our region’s glacial history. This walk will be a 1 mile loop. 

In partnership with Friends of Northampton Trails.

An Interactive Workshop by Alice Nash, Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst

“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.

After 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.

A Walking Tour with co-directors Elizabeth Sharpe and Laurie Sanders

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.

A Zoom Presentation by author Josh Shanley

In his forthcoming book, Connecticut River Valley Flood of 1936, author Josh Shanley recounts the greatest flood in New England history.

Early in the spring of 1936, nearly two feet of rain over a two-week period created havoc on a massive scale, killing more than one hundred people and leaving tens of thousands homeless, unemployed, and without power for weeks.  The flood helped launch FDR’s Flood Control Act of 1936.  Dams, reservoirs and dikes were constructed to control future flooding.  Northampton in particular stands out as an example of the impact of flooding in New England.  A system of flood walls, levies, pumps and stop logs were built to protect downtown Northampton from another major flood.  This infrastructure has gone largely unchanged since built.

Shanley will recount the flood of 1936 and examine the potential for future floods.

Sponsored by Whalen Insurance

Question and Answer session about local places with co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders

Ever wonder why the Mineral Hills are called the Mineral Hills? Or, what part of Northampton was known as Lonetown? Or …. how the morning chorus of bird song differs from what it was a century ago? If you have questions about the interrelationship between Northampton’s human history and the natural world, join us for an hour of questions with naturalist and co-director Laurie Sanders.

Final part of series: Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through an Ecological Lens

Sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank

A Zoom Presentation by co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders

Northampton’s extensive and fertile floodplain along the Connecticut River has been continuously farmed and managed for thousands of years–first by the Nonotuck and, since 1654, by English settlers and later immigrants to the Valley. Today, however, this landscape–once integral and celebrated–is unfamiliar to many Valley residents. 
 
In the final presentation of her six-part series, Laurie Sanders will explore the important roles that Northampton’s 3,000-plus acres of rich meadowland have played in the City’s cultural, economic, and ecological history.  She will discuss the floodplain forest, one of the most imperiled and vulnerable habitats in Massachusetts, and will explain how we can preserve this important natural area.

Part 6 of series: Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through an Ecological Lens

Sponsored by River Valley Co-op and Meadow City Conservation Coalition

A Zoom Presentation by costume and textile historian Lynne Zacek Bassett

An 1890s article in the Hampshire Gazette inquired how Northampton’s “excess of women” made their living. Indeed, in the decades following the Civil War, thousands of women across the country had to support themselves and possibly also family members after the loss of nearly 750,000 men in the war. The needle trades had offered money-earning opportunities to women for hundreds of years. This lecture by nationally recognized costume and textile historian (and former Historic Northampton curator) Lynne Zacek Bassett will examine the 19th-century millinery and dressmaking trades in Northampton, focusing particularly on the Dickinson family, who dominated the millinery trade in Hampshire County for most of the century, and dressmakers represented by extant dresses in Historic Northampton’s collection.

A Zoom Presentation by co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders.

During the 19th century, a movement to establish parks was born in cities across the United States. In response to America’s rapid industrialization and rising urban populations, recreation advocates championed the creation of parks as places where workers could escape from crowded living conditions, breathe clean air, and get a break from the unrelenting noise of factories.
 
But what about Northampton? With its highly industrialized Mill River region, how did its citizens respond to the idea of creating public parks?  Laurie Sanders will describe the origins of the parks that we enjoy today and tell the tales of those that were never created.  It is no surprise that the establishment of nearly all of them was controversial.

Part 5 of series: Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through an Ecological Lens

A Zoom Presentation by Christopher J. Sparks

Northampton was an agricultural and industrial community of just 6,500 when, on a July 4th afternoon in 1856, local and state dignitaries laid the cornerstone for the third state hospital for persons labeled as mentally ill in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This program will compare 19th-century thinking about the root causes of psychiatric disorders, which led to the establishment of the hospital, with 20th century ideas about mental health, which culminated with the closing of the hospital.

We will explore two documents: Dr. Edward Jarvis’s “Insanity and Idiocy in Massachusetts” from 1855 (so influential that a copy was sealed in the cornerstone of the original building), and video segments from Frontline’s “A Place for Madness,” produced in 1994, on the closing of Northampton State Hospital.

This talk is presented in partnership with Northampton Open Media.

Commandment 613 is a 23-minute documentary film featuring Rabbi Kevin Hale of Leeds, a joyful sofer (Torah scribe) who restores scrolls that were saved in Czechoslovakia during the Shoah. Commandment 613 will make its Western Massachusetts premiere during the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival. Historic Northampton and Circles for Jewish Living are pleased to co-sponsor these related events. Kevin Hale is a former board member of Historic Northampton.

Watch the documentary, Commandment 613, at home (March 5)

Attend the virtual calligraphy demo & class with Rabbi Kevin Hale (March 7)

Join the virtual film discussion with Miriam Lewin, Rabbi Kevin Hale & Randi Cecchine. Moderated by Larry Hott. (March 8)

A Video Screening and Talkback on Zoom

Historic Northampton is pleased to present a screening of two video episodes from Self-Evident Media’s series of educational resources. “One Minute’s Freedom” is about Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman and the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts and “The Truth is Powerful” (premiere) examines two public versions of Sojourner Truth’s most famous speech, often referred to as “Ain’t I a Woman?,” delivered in 1851. Each video is about 12 minutes long.

Following the screenings, Professor Ousmane Power-Greene will moderate a discussion with the scholars, filmmakers, and educators who produced the series: Jellissa Lacon, Michael Lawrence-Riddell, Chrishaunda Lee Perez, and Bayeté Ross Smith. For more information on the speakers, click here.

Part 4 of Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through an Ecological Lens
A six-part series on Zoom by co-director & naturalist Laurie Sanders

During the last 500 years, there have been dramatic changes in the abundance and variety of Northampton’s wildlife species. Some, like wolves, mountain lions, and passenger pigeons, are completely gone. Others, like black bears, beavers, and wild turkeys, have seen their populations rebound after decades or centuries of absence. And many other species—coyotes, cardinals, and gypsy moths, to name a few—have arrived and become year-round residents.
 
In this presentation, Laurie Sanders will highlight historical changes and trends that have led to the mix of animal species that we now encounter in Northampton, from its urbanized center to its wilder spaces.

In partnership with Kestrel Land Trust, Hilltown Land Trust, and Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary