Current Exhibitions

"into your hands..."
April 16 - September 19, 2010

Inscriptions on a drawer of the desk
and bookcase of Dr. Josiah Bartlett
record the line of descent; a 1994
bequest from Edward J. Bartlett.
Photograph by David Bohl.

The Concord Museum celebrates the 375th anniversary of the founding of the town of Concord with a special exhibition, “into your hands…” featuring objects that have been passed down in Concord’s families and then entrusted to the Concord Museum.

These extraordinary objects—spanning twelve generations— come with fascinating stories that tell us much about the town and those who have lived and worked here: famous residents and ordinary citizens, ministers and mothers, journalists and farmers, school girls and teachers, war heroes and literary icons. Some of the objects commemorate a personal event like a wedding or the birth of a child; some, a nationally important event like the opening battle of the American Revolution. In many cases the objects have never traveled further than a mile from where they were made; others have traveled far and wide, finally coming home to Concord.

The exhibition includes portraits, jewelry, needlework, ceramics, clothing, furniture, clocks and silver, all donated to the Concord Museum by family members with the intent to preserve Concord’s history for generations to come.  The title “into your hands…” is taken from a 1942 letter written by Lucy Merriam Brigham describing her gift of family possessions to the Museum.  Highlights of the exhibition include:

• A needlework picture embroidered by Rebeckah Wheeler who was born in Concord ten years after the town’s founding.   The picture was worked around 1667 just before her marriage to Peter Bulkeley, grandson of the Concord founder. A gift to the Museum in 1861, having descended through four generations.

• The Bloody Massacre, the famed Revere engraving that was a milestone in America’s road to independence, owned by Emerson Cogswell, a hatmaker, in 1775 Concord. A gift to the Museum in 2002 by Cogswell’s great, great, great-granddaughter.  

• Pvt. Abner Hosmer’s powderhorn, worn at the fight at the North Bridge, April 19, 1775, where the 21-year-old Acton native was killed.  A gift to the Museum in 1936. 

• An early 19th-century desk and bookcase of Dr. Josiah Bartlett, a Concord physician for fifty-seven years, together with his account book.  A 1994 bequest to the Museum from the estate of Edward J. Bartlett; the line of descent is recorded in pencil inscriptions on the side of the central drawer.

• An 18th-century high chest made in Concord and descended in the Wheeler Family of Concord.  A gift to the Museum from the family of Wilfrid and Emily Wheeler in 1996. 

• Gold brooch with inset miniature portrait on ivory of Ellen Tucker Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first wife, together with the shawl she is wearing in the 1830 portrait. A 1961 gift to the Museum from Mr. and Mrs. F.P. Nash, descendants of Ellen’s sister Pauline Tucker Nash.