Past Exhibitions

When Duty Whispers: Concord and the Civil War
April 15 through September 18, 2011

When Duty Whispers: Concord and the Civil War featured objects from the Concord Museum collection—some never before exhibited—including uniforms, accoutrements, arms, swords, flags, broadsides, portraits, correspondence and newspapers. The exhibition also brought together selections from the remarkable collections of the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library; an extraordinary group of Gettysburg relics from the Carlisle Historical Society; a charcoal study for the monumental painting “Memories of Antietam” by Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts from the Concord Art Association; and representative examples from a private collection of Springfield arms. In addition, a recently-conserved flag of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of two black infantry regiments from Massachusetts during the Civil War, was included courtesy of The Middlesex School.

"A little scrap for recollection's sake:
Quilts from the Concord Museum "
October 8, 2010 - March 27, 2011
Rarely exhibited, the quilts on view in this special exhibition ranged from doll size to full size, and include bold geometrics, traditional patchwork, signature quilts and crazy quilts, most dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. Also included in the exhibition were patterns, quilt tops, shams and sewing tools. Each quilt on exhibit had a story to tell about the creative makers, the communities they lived in, and the period of history in which they were working.

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

A Dedication to Craft: North Bennet Street School @ 125
November 13, 2009 - March 21, 2010
This juried exhibition of furniture, jewelry, musical instruments and fine bookbindings was crafted by 55 distinguished alumni of the renowned North Bennet Street School in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the school in Boston’s North End.

Setting the President's Table: American Presidential China from the McNeil Americana Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
March 27, 2009 - October 12, 2009
This special exhibition showcased over 100 pieces of porcelain used by American presidents from Washington to Lincoln and Roosevelt to Reagan as they entertained the world’s heads of state, distinguished literati, business leaders and cultural luminaries at the national “First Table.” This visual history of the American presidency was sure to fascinate anyone with an interest in American history and presidential politics, entertaining and style, collecting and decorative arts.

Street Smarts
October 3, 2008 - March 1, 2009
In Concord, we often say, there is history on every street corner.  And at the Concord Museum, we take that literally. How and when were today’s streets named? The answers are interesting ones that bring a human connection to the familiar green and white signs on Concord’s street corners.  To tell the story behind the sign we paired objects from the Museum’s wide-ranging collection with the street name. 

Seasonings
June 21 - September 14, 2008
The four seasons - winter, spring, summer and fall - evoke distinctive individual memories, yet often with universal appeal. This engaging exhibition drew from the artifacts in the Concord Museum’s rich and varied collection to explore some of the nostalgic events, traditions, and rituals of each season in American culture. Opening to the public on the first full day of summer, the exhibition began by chronicling the season of outdoor recreations, summer breezes, and patriotic celebrations.  Spring, fall and winter were similarly explored through artifacts that bring to mind a seasonal sense of time and place: spring cleaning and baseball, back-to-school and applepicking, keeping warm and snow sports.

American Style: Russell Kettell's Pine Furniture
February 2 - May 18, 2008
In the 1920s and 30s, Russell Kettell, collector and author of the now classic books Pine Furniture and Early American Rooms, defined an aesthetic that helped shape the appreciation of American domestic art and craft. His book on period rooms, compiled with the help of the first generation of American museum professionals to interpret American art, was the first to define the canon for the re-creation of historic domestic interiors. His book on pine furniture similarly defined for generations the distinctive appeal of the vernacular furniture of New England. The Concord Museum drew on its own collection - Russell Kettell donated more than 1000 pieces from his own collection to the Museum - and several private collections to illustrate Kettell's aesthetic. Included in the exhibition were boxes, tables, candlestands, looking glasses, six-board cases, cupboards, hanging shelves, ceramics and metalware that exemplify the American style associated with Russell Kettell.

Building Thoreau's Boat
August 31, 2007 - January 6, 2008
This exhibition had as its centerpiece the reconstruction of a boat like the one Henry Thoreau and his brother John rowed and sailed in a trip they took from Concord, Massachusetts to New Hampshire in 1839. It was this trip, in this boat, that resulted in Henry Thoreau's first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The exhibition explored the brothers' now-famous trip, the history of dories in New England, and most importantly, the process of recreating and building an historic boat. In June 2007, David Snediker of Taylor & Snediker, specialists in building and restoring small craft, reconstructed Thoreau's dory in a boat-building yard in Pawcatuck, CT. The process was documented by photographer Eric Roth, whose photographs, along with the plans, tools and raw materials used in the boatbuilding process, were displayed in the exhibition.

A Splash of Blue
February 2 - August 12, 2007
The color blue made a splash in this blue-ribbon exhibition featuring all things blue from the Concord Museum's wide-ranging collection. Fashion and furniture, tableware and textiles, art and advertising lit up the galleries with a blue palette that was both hot and icy cool. This exhibition looked at objects from the Museum's collection through a blue lens, exploring the pigments, fabrics, papers and paints used in seascapes and landscapes, geometric and floral bandboxes, charming coverlets, always-appealing blue and white ceramics, a Union officer's great coat, a 1960s Emilio Pucci patterned silk dress, and much more.

Needles & Haystacks: Pastoral Imagery in American Needlework from the Winterthur Collection
October 3, 2006 - January 7, 2007
Featuring exquisite needlework pictures of idyllic country scenes created by schoolgirls in early America, the exhibition gave a new twist to the traditional focus on the landscape that is so much a part of New England history. The artistry and charm of the works themselves, the richness of the colors in the needlework, and the diversity of the materials and techniques appealed to all those with an appreciation for fine craftsmanship, including antique collectors, artists, designers, and needlework enthusiasts from novice to expert. Forms ranging from framed pictures and samplers to petticoat borders and chair seat covers were complemented by silver teapots, Staffordshire figurines, painted boxes and porcelain candlesticks that supported the pastoral theme. (Photograph courtesy Winterthur)

The Purse and the Person: A Century of Women's Purses
April 21, 2006 - July 4, 2006
While archaeologists may create a picture of an individual from a cache of artifacts buried deep in the earth, this exhibition brought together life stories buried right under our noses – in the purses carried by our mothers and grandmothers. Developed from a private collection of nearly 2,000 handbags, each vignette in this exhibit combined purses with the everyday objects that filled them. Glimpse into the lives of Edwardian matrons, flappers, wartime Rosie the Riveters, suburban housewives, hippies, businesswomen, and more. The women of the 20th century revealed their personalities, their fashion sense and their day-to-day concerns brought out in the mysterious depths of their purses.

A Main Street Point of View
January 25, 2006 - April 2, 2006
From multi-generation family businesses to new enterprises, from clock and cabinetmakers to butchers and milliners, hardware stores and apothecaries, through change and continuity, A Main Street Point of View celebrated the economic life of a quintessential New England town. This exhibition at the Concord Museum peeled back the streetscape's layers of history through contemporary views by nationally-renowned photographer Eric Roth, treasured historical images, and three centuries of artifacts from the Museum's rich and varied collection. Silver spoons and milk bottles, portraits of merchants and gunsmiths, clocks and chests of drawers, shop signs and account books all share a storied connection to Concord's business thoroughfares.

Eric Roth, a photographer well-known for his work with The Boston Globe Magazine, Yankee and House Beautiful, has captured the dynamic essence of today's commercial districts, using many of the same vantage points as the historical images. The compelling photographic history is drawn from the William Munroe Special Collections at the Concord Free Public Library, the Anderson Archives and private collections.

David Sibley's Birds
June 24, 2005 - January 1, 2006
Over 50 original watercolor paintings by America's most gifted contemporary illustrator of birds, David Allen Sibley, were on view at the Concord Museum in the first major exhibition of this author/artist's work. More than just a field guide, The Sibley Guide to Birds has already proved to be one of the most influential natural history books of our times. The exhibition offered a rare opportunity to bring together the art and expertise of this innovative, nationally-recognized Concord resident.

Connecticut Valley Furniture by Eliphalet Chapin and His Contemporaries, 1750-1800
January 29, 2005 - June 5, 2005
Masterworks of Connecticut 18th-century furniture from the Connecticut Historical Society Museum and other public and private collections included 23 pieces ranging from high chests to candlestands and dressing tables to side chairs. Gallery interactives and videos featuring Leigh and Leslie Keno of PBS' Find! and Antiques Roadshow reveal the secrets behind this highly-prized furniture of enduring elegance.

American Writers at Home
October 8, 2004 - January 2, 2005
Evocative photographic portraits of the homes of some of America's most important literary figures and a selection of the writers' original manuscript poems and letters, revealed the importance of place in shaping the books and poems we love most, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby-Dick, Ethan Frome, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Little Women, and Long Day's Journey into Night.

Visiting Thoreau's Walden
May 21, 2004 - September 19, 2004
The exhibition celebrated the 150th anniversary of the publication of Henry David Thoreau's Walden; or, Life in the Woods, one of the seminal works that has shaped the American character. Artifacts and images explored the generations of visitors for whom Walden Pond has been home, workplace, playground and sacred ground.

The A-Z List: Finding the Unexpected
January 23, 2004 - April 25, 2004
Over 100 items with unexpected visual and verbal richness that literally ranged from A to Z were on view from the Museum's renowned collection. From simple objects to high-style knockouts, the exhibition included furnishings, textiles, ceramics, silver, paintings, tools, jewelry and more.

Degrees of Latitude: Maps of America from the Colonial Williamsburg Collection
July 10, 2003 - October 19, 2003
An extraordinary collection of 72 historic maps and an atlas of early America, culled from Colonial Williamsburg's extensive collection were featured as a point of departure for understanding the history of American settlement and colonization. The maps, representing each of the 13 colonies, were selected for their rarity, historical importance and aesthetic beauty.

Emerson and His Study: An Inside Look
January 25, 2003 - April 6, 2003
Examining for the first time in a gallery setting some of the Study's most significant furnishings, paintings, prints and books offered a privileged look at an icon of American letters – the study of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Good Then, Good Always: Toys and Memories
October 4, 2002 - January 5, 2003
Designed for both kids-at-heart and their children and grandchildren, the exhibition included over 100 wonderful toys spanning three centuries and brought to light the fascinating stories behind these classics.

Illustrating Little Women: Louisa May Alcott and Frank Thayer Merrill
June 21, 2002 - September 15, 2002
Sixty-five original illustrations from Frank Thayer Merrill for the 1880 Roberts Brothers edition of Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women illuminated the interaction between Alcott and Merrill in the illustrative process.

Traditions in Elegance: 100 Teapots from the Norwich Castle Museum
January 25, 2002 - May 27, 2002
The custom of tea preparation and tea drinking in English life through its most prominent object — the teapot — during the 18th and 19th centuries — was explored in this engaging exhibition.

Wild Flora
October 4, 2001 - January 6, 2002
Over 100 botanical prints of pressed plants artfully preserved using an innovative technique by field biologist Erika Sonder were exhibited with botanical specimens collected in the traditional manner in the 19th century by New England naturalists including Thoreau.

Everything Old is New Again: Recent Acquisitions
June 23, 2001 - September 16, 2001
This exhibition provided a glimpse into the collecting practices of one of the oldest and most distinguished history and decorative arts museums in the country. Specially designed children's labels and hands-on activities throughout the exhibition engaged visitors of all ages.

Keeping Time: Clockmaking in Concord 1790-1835
September 8, 2000 - January 21, 2001
A ground-breaking exhibition featured over thirty of the finest examples of documented Concord clocks from the Museum's collection and others in a fascinating mix of craftsmanship, social history, entrepreneurship, economics and art.