2025 Events & Programs

Join a gallery talk to explore the exhibit with a member of Historic Northampton’s staff.

Learn more details of the lives of local enslaved individuals and the narratives of enslaved people becoming free. We will share information about the legal arrangements that kept slavery in place, how enslaved labor fueled the Northampton and regional economy, and the research at Historic Northampton, Forbes Library, and elsewhere in the Valley that underlies the exhibit.

​​As we explore the exhibit, we will discuss personal connections to this local history and discover what questions we still have about slavery in Northampton.

Join us for a barn open house to wish Shepherd Barn a winter’s goodnight!

Explore the beautifully restored barn and its artifacts, listen to expert timber framer Alicia Spence about the barn’s restoration, enjoy live fiddle music, and other fun activities for children and families.

At 5 pm bedtime, everyone is invited to gather to say “Goodnight Barn!” featuring a special song written just for this occasion. Cider donuts and local apple cider will be available.

Join us for a zoom presentation with Tom Weiner, Northampton-based writer and educator, and Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor of History and Africana Studies in the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, to learn about their new book, In Defiance: 20 Abolitionists You Were Never Taught in School (Simon and Schuster, 2025).
​
The book features previously untold stories of individuals–Black and white– who risked their lives to fight enslavement in the United States. In this illustrated presentation, the authors will share some of the stories contained in the book as well as their motivation for writing it, their research, and the importance of this history, then and now.

Following the 30-minute screening, UMass Amherst historians Marla Miller and Alison Russell—both experts in the American Revolution and the role of Connecticut Valley families during this period—will provide remarks and answer questions from the audience. The conversation and Q & A will be moderated by historian Erika Gasser, director of academic programs at Historic Deerfield.

The American Revolution is a new six-part, twelve-hour documentary series that explores the country’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence. The series will premiere on PBS on Sunday, November 16, 2025 and air for six consecutive nights through Friday, November 21 from 8-10 pm on NEPM.​​

Join timber framer, architect, and barn historian Jack Sobon for a special one-hour “tour” of the 1805 Shepherd Barn. Jack will point out the clues that reveal the structure’s previous “lives” and uses.

As a special bonus, Jack will give a show-and-tell of some barn tools and artifacts from his collection.

In 2020-2021, Sobon examined the construction and carpentry of the Shepherd barn focusing on evidence of its original purpose and use and how it had been modified over 115 years.

In this illustrated talk, Jack Sobon–timber framer, forensic architect, author, and founder of the Timber Framers Guild of North America–will show the development of New England’s barns from the early small-sized self-sufficient farmstead “English” barns to the larger New England or “Yankee” barns common on more expansive farms of the 19th century. 
 
Jack will describe how the design and layout of these buildings was transformed as farming changed. Along the way, you will learn about square pegs in round holes, riving, scribing, juggling, raising, shaving horses, beef rolls, dove holes, and gin poles.
 
This hour-long presentation will be followed by a Q & A.

Join Historic Northampton’s Elizabeth Sacktor for a walking tour of the Bridge Street Cemetery.  We’ll explore how gravestones, and their locations in the cemetery, help us understand how Northampton women have been remembered, or nearly forgotten.

The tour will visit the graves of ten women buried between 1776 and 1923, from early 18th-century midwives to the first Indigenous woman to attend Smith College.

Each woman has a story to tell, and by examining the grave itself and the material remnants of their lives, we will uncover these stories together.

A Halloween ACapella Concert with Spooky Dances, Gourmet Candy Raffle, & Kid’s Costume Contest, and featuring:

Northamptones
Cider House Boys
Smithereens
Groove
Smiffenpoofs
Wise Guys
Green Street Brew
Nice Shoes
Noteables
S#arp Attitude
Celebrations Dance Company
Vibes
Blackapella

Music was everywhere in New England in the decades before and after the Revolution. By 1800, Northampton was a regional hub of music printing, and Connecticut Valley instrument makers worked to meet the new demand for musical instruments. While there were few professional musicians, almost everyone–rich or poor, Black or white–learned to sing and many learned to play New England viols (similar to modern cellos and violas), fiddles, flutes, “clarionets,” bassoons, and more.

To celebrate this early music, Historic Northampton features a concert featuring voices and viols, including works by Sawney Freeman, a formerly enslaved composer from Connecticut as well as music that Freeman would have played and heard. Other selections will include hymns, fiddle tunes, songs, and dance music, some of which haven’t been heard for more than two centuries.

It’s a great American tradition to dance in barns, and we’re so pleased to honor that tradition and host a contra dance this season in the Shepherd Barn. Steve Howland will call a variety of circle, square and contra dances, and the band will feature long-time valley contra dance musicians: Becky Hollingsworth on piano, Joe Blumenthal on bass, and Rebecca Weiss and Rose Jackson on fiddle.

Join museum educator Elizabeth Sacktor on a visit to the cemetery’s oldest graves, dating back to the 17th and early 18th centuries, to learn about the lives they commemorate. From the elaborate markers of community leaders, such as Solomon Stoddard (died 1729), to the shared graves of children, Joel and Mary Lyman (died 1778), gravestones reveal social status, the strict hierarchy of early Northampton life, and Puritan New England’s changing worldviews. Together we’ll explore how the burial ground reflects shifting community values, new styles of gravestone carving, and changing beliefs of death and loss.​

Take in the beauty of the Connecticut River in a dragon boat and learn about the rich natural and cultural history in the stretch between Elwell Island and the boundary of Hatfield. The outing will begin with a paddling lesson by members of the Paradise City Dragon Boat team, followed by a paddle with commentary by co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders about the environmental and human history of this part of the Connecticut River.  

Many of today’s familiar locations in downtown are the sites of historical events which are no longer remembered but which ought to be.

Join co-director Elizabeth Sharpe as we visit sites where moments of injustice, political division, and social progress  took place, including where:

• Mary Bliss Parsons lived when she was accused of witchcraft in the late 1600s,
• formerly enslaved Moidore and Boston lived,
• Frederick Douglass spoke in 1844,
• the first weddings of same-sex couples took place in 2004, and much more.

For one day only, see original 17th- and 18th-century documents relating to slavery in Northampton. Gain deeper insight into enslaved lives and the institution of slavery as it was practiced in town.

The documents will be on display in collaboration with Forbes Library and the Hampshire County Probate Court. Among the documents will be:

• The bill of sale for a man named Boston purchased by Joseph Parsons Jr. in 1715;
• The will of Joseph Bartlett which manumitted Dinah and Peter, c. 1754;
• The agreement which allowed Sue and Mingo to marry and made provision for the ownership of their children.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together brings people together to read aloud Frederick Douglass’s speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

Come to listen or come to read a passage. Copies of Douglass’s speech will be distributed to all in attendance. The public can take turns reading passages from it in succession. This event is free and open to the public.

200 chairs will be available. Feel free to bring your own chair.​ The Northampton event is organized in collaboration with State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa(opens in a new tab).

Graphic silhouettes and historic documents from the new exhibit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783 will be projected onto the 1719 Parsons family house at 58 Bridge Street in Northampton in an outdoor slideshow by Whitney Designworks of Northampton.

For at least 129 years, slavery was part of the fabric of everyday life in Northampton. At least 50 enslaved individuals lived here from the town’s English settlement in 1654 until 1783 when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. The outdoor slideshow features graphic silhouettes of men, women, and children who were enslaved here.

With Josh Shanley, retired firefighter and author

Walk through downtown with retired Northampton firefighter Josh Shanley as he describes the history of fires and firefighting in Northampton, the topic of his recent book. He will describe the fire history that shaped Northampton’s architecture and tell the story of the City’s fire department — from its establishment in 1857, when hose wagons and hand tubs were pulled by volunteers, to today when Northampton Fire Rescue responds to more than three thousand calls each year.

Join us for a Summer Barn Open House when you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the artifacts in the barn from Historic Northampton’s staff and attend special 30-minute programs (1 pm; 2 pm) about the history and restoration of the barn from lead timber framer Alicia Spence.

A variety of activities for children and families will also be available, including a hands-on program with Chinese silk worms with Faith Deering. An expert on silkworms and many other insects, Faith will answer questions about the role that silkworms, mulberries, and silk played in the history of Northampton and Florence and the curious life cycle of Chinese silk worms.

With Elizabeth Sacktor, Museum Educator, Historic Northampton

Join us for a walking tour of the Bridge Street Cemetery, where we’ll explore how Northampton has remembered women after their death.

Using gravestones to study women’s history, lets us understand which women Northampton has deemed worthy of remembering, and which are forgotten. The tour will visit the graves of 10 women buried at Bridge Street Cemetery, from 1776 to 1923, from early 18th century midwives, to the first Indigenous woman to attend Smith College.

Each woman has a story to tell, and through examining the grave itself and the material remnants of their lives, we will uncover these stories together.

Join Historic Northampton’s Elizabeth Sacktor on a walking tour of downtown Northampton as seen through the theme of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. The tour will be a non-chronological exploration of how Northampton’s many immigrant populations worked and built community amid changing sentiments and discrimination. Hear the stories of two Irish men executed for a crime they did not commit. See the former home of a successful Jewish family who turned their clothing business into a Northampton staple. Learn about the ways Puerto Rican women made a name for themselves for their fine needlework. Visit the site of a former Chinese Laundry and learn about the U.S.’s first laws limiting immigration based on race. Together, we will ask questions about what it means to be American, what it means to be from Northampton, and how our home is shaped by the communities with whom we share it.

With Laurie Sanders, Co-director & Naturalist

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.

Eric Sawyer and Harley Erdman’s operas The Garden of Martyrs (2013) and The Scarlet Professor (2017) dramatize searing events from Northampton’s history: the 1806 execution of two Irish immigrants for a murder they likely didn’t commit, and the 1960 arrest of a gay Smith College professor for possessing “indecent” materials.

Join us for three special concerts featuring musical highlights from both of these works, heard for the first time since the operas’ premieres, and sung by a group of extraordinary vocalists–Katherine Saik DeLugan, William Hite, Ann Moss, Keith Phares, and Alan Schneider.

With Emma John, Historian

William Fenno Pratt (1814-1900) was a prolific architect, who designed several buildings in Northampton and surrounding towns. Historian Emma John will lead a walk from Historic Northampton to the Academy of Music focusing on Pratt’s architectural contributions to Main Street, which include City Hall and the Smith Charities Building. We will also talk about the role of civic pride, social order, historic preservation and the lasting legacy of Pratt’s work.

With Laurie Sanders, Co-director, Historic Northampton

Explore a portion of the 50+ acres of the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area that experienced a brush fire in November 2024 to see first-hand how the herbaceous layer is recovering. How damaging are brush fires of this size and intensity? What are the short and long-term effects of fire on a woodland ecosystem? How might this fire resemble those set by the Nonotuck?

Moderated by Erika Slocumb with participants from the Lesbians of Color Oral History Project

Join Erika Slocumb and members of Northampton’s community of lesbians of color, Pippa Flemming and Marcel Walters, as they discuss the history of Northampton’s queer community and the historic organization, De Colores.

Historic Northampton will screen De Colores: Defining Kinship, Finding Peace, a short documentary film telling the story of the community created by Black lesbians who came to Northampton, Massachusetts, in the 1970s and 1980s to live, work, and love. Slocumb will then discuss Historic Northampton’s recent Lesbians of Color Oral History project, followed by a panel discussion from participants in the project and an open Q&A with the community. Bookends Florence will be in attendance selling books on local lesbian history.

With Astronomer James Lowenthal, Coordinator of Northampton City Lights(opens in a new tab)

Join us for the third annual Northampton Night Fest in celebration of International Dark Sky Week 2025. Learn about the night sky from astronomer James Lowenthal, followed by a mix of stargazing and night-time exploring in and around Historic Northampton.

We will observe together the profound changes nature undergoes every 24 hours: the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations of the temperature falling; the wind shifting; animals from birds to mammals to insects around us heading for sleep or waking up for a night’s activity; and, if weather permits, the stars coming out.

With Laurie Sanders, co-director of Historic Northampton

In April 1870, Sophia Smith, a lifelong resident of Hatfield, executed her will, ensuring that her future namesake college would be located in Northampton–not in Hatfield as she had initially envisioned. To mark the 150 year anniversary of this event, on Wednesday, April 16, the Hatfield Historical Society and Historic Northampton are collaborating:

From 4 to 5:45 pm, the Hatfield Historical Society (2nd floor, 39 Main Street, Hatfield) will open a new exhibit, Sophia Smith At Home, which features artifacts from Smith’s private life.

At 6 pm, Historic Northampton’s co-director and Smith College alumna Laurie Sanders will give a presentation at Hatfield’s First Congregational Church about Sophia Smith’s life, her deep roots in Hatfield, her decision to fund a women’s college, and the factors that influenced her decision to locate the college in Northampton.

Moderated by Olivia Haynes, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Business of slavery—specifically the buying and selling of people, food, and goods—shaped the experience of slavery, the process of emancipation, and the realities of Black freedom in Rhode Island from the colonial period through the American Civil War. In the colonial period, Rhode Islanders dominated the American trade in African slaves and provided the slave-labor-dependent West Indies with basic necessities. In the post-colonial period, as slavery was legally dismantled, Rhode Islanders became the leading producers of slave clothing. Black people resisted their bondage, fought for their freedom, and strove to build a community in a racially hostile colony and state; their assertions of humanity shaped Rhode Island society, politics, and economy. The erasure of this history has allowed for a dangerous myth—that the North has no history of racism to overcome and that white northerners had no substantive investments in race-based slavery.

A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place

On February 21, 1838, exiled Southerner Angelina Grimke became the first American woman to address a legislative body when she delivered a speech about abolition and the full citizenship of American women at the Massachusetts State House.

A Light Under the Dome brings us to this moment in history, showcasing Grimke and taking us inside the minds and hearts of four abolitionist and suffragist leaders–Maria Weston Chapman, Susan Paul, Julia Williams, and Lydia Maria Child, who in 1838 was living in Northampton. As Grimke readies herself for this moment, her four friends help support and guide her through this pressure-packed moment. A few years later, Grimke would give a similar speech here in Northampton.

With Dr. Charmaine A. Nelson, University of Massachusetts Amherst

If you’re unfamiliar with slavery in Canada, you’re not alone. Most people have never had the opportunity to learn about the 200-year history of Canadian participation in Transatlantic Slavery under the British and the French. This lack of knowledge is principally because scholarship on Canadian Slavery falls far short of the research that has been produced about the U.S. South, the Caribbean, and northern South America.

This talk explores various dimensions of Canadian Slavery within the broader context of transatlantic histories with attention to how scholars conduct research on unfree people using archival and cultural sources. It also connects the dots between histories of slavery and ongoing anti-Black racism.

A Visit to The New York Historical museum, with a Special Tour of the exhibition Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of ​What Women Wore, featuring clothing from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection

Join Historic Northampton co-directors and Kiki Smith, Smith College professor of theatre, clothing historian, and author, on a special visit to the exhibition Kiki Smith conceived and curated: Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore at The New York Historical museum.

Featuring garments from the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection, the exhibit reveals the history, economics, and stories behind the everyday fashion worn by women over the last two centuries. Since its opening last September, reviewers have spotlighted Real Clothes, Real Lives as one of the most important new exhibits on display. It will close in June 2025.

A play by Patrick Gabridge, Producing Artistic Director, Plays in Place

On March 5, 1770, British soldiers in Boston killed four unarmed civilians and wounded eight more in what is known today as the Boston Massacre. This play focuses on the events that took place the day after—March 6, 1770—when the leaders of Boston gathered in the Council Chamber of what is now the Old State House and made decisions that placed Massachusetts on the road to revolution. These live readings will be the first time this play has been performed outside of Boston.

The live performance will be directed by Brianna Sloane and feature local professional actors, many of whom performed in Pulling at the Roots at Historic Northampton in 2023 and 2024. The actors include: Matt Haas, Bill Stewart, Gabriel Levey, Andrew Roberts, Marcus Neverson, Lindel Hart, Scott Braidman, Luke Haskell, Rich Vaden, ​and Patrick Toole.

With Dr. Jennifer DeClue, Smith College

Moderated by Gina Nortonsmith, Archivist, Northeastern University and Historic Northampton Board Member

The names of Black women enslaved by the powerful men remembered in history as “River Gods” can be found in their diaries, account books, wills, probate inventories, and church records. These records do the good work of offering confirmation that John Stoddard owned a woman called Elizabeth; that Jonathan Edwards owned Leah and Rose and Venus; that the Dwight family owned Sylvia Church; and that the Phelps family owned Peg and Rose and Phillis and Rose’s daughter Phillis.

Smith College professor Jennifer DeClue will discuss how these archival records make incontrovertible the fact of slavery’s violent history in the valley, but leave many questions unanswered. Dr. DeClue will work to paint a clearer picture of what life might have been like for Black women enslaved here, in the long years before abolition would unfold in Massachusetts.

With Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene, Dylan Gaffney & Dr. Elizabeth M. Sharpe

For the last five years researchers at Historic Northampton and Forbes Library have been uncovering stories of slavery and freedom in Northampton. These investigations have revealed that perhaps as many as fifty enslaved people lived in Northampton between 1654, when Northampton was settled by the English, until 1783, when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts.

As elsewhere in the North, slavery in Northampton was inextricably linked to local commerce, local and regional family networks, and the global economy. Among the narratives of Northampton’s enslaved people—who were Indigenous, African, and African American—are stories of a few individuals who were able to take control over their lives, gain freedom, start families, manage careers, and acquire property.​Presenters Dylan Gaffney, Elizabeth Sharpe, and Ousmane Power-Greene will discuss what we presently know about enslaved lives in Northampton and conclude with questions that remain unanswered and avenues for future research.