Historic Deerfield

06/18/2026

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, a celebration of freedom that traces its origins to June 19, 1865. More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced freedom to more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Texas.

Often overlooked, slavery also existed in New England. Join us tomorrow for walking tours featuring the Witness Stones that commemorate the lives of enslaved individuals who lived in Deerfield during the 18th century.

Tours depart from Hall Tavern at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. and are included with general admission. We hope to see you there.

06/17/2026

Historic Deerfield welcomes Joanne Jahnke-Wegner, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, for a two-week library research fellowship as she works on turning her dissertation into a book. Her project, “Dematriation: Enslavement and Gendered Dispossession in the 17th Century Northeast,” will focus on Indigenous captivity and the transfer of land to English settlers, particularly around King Philip’s War and its aftermath. Joanne is researching family papers and letters, land deeds, and captivity narratives. One letter in our library that she will study was written by Peter Schuyler with information about Eunice Williams and other captives of the 1704 raid.

06/16/2026

Calling woodworkers of all ages and skill levels—or anyone interested in historic furniture! This Saturday (June 20), from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Historic Deerfield will offer historic trade demonstrations featuring eighteenth-century woodworking. At the Apprentice's Workshop, Sharon Mehrman, an artisan woodworker and historian, will demonstrate eighteenth-century chest carving while Craig Farrow will showcase 1770s carving and chair details at the Flynt Center. Historic trade demonstrations are included with general admission.

Looking for books on American furniture? Historic Deerfield Gift Shop and Bookstore now has 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 2024 for sale, which features new research on historic American furniture from Edenton, North Carolina to Salem, Massachusetts. Read more here: https://www.historicdeerfieldstore.com/product/american-furniture-2024/3843.

06/15/2026

Can't make it to a live program? You can still attend!

All of Historic Deerfield's hybrid programs are recorded and made available to registrants for up to one month after the event. Simply register for virtual attendance, and you'll automatically receive access to the recording even if you can't join us live.

This also applies to our upcoming Dublin Seminar (June 26–27):
https://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/dublin-seminar-2026-futurecasting/

Please note:
• In-person registration closes Monday, June 22, at 12:00 p.m. EDT.
• Virtual registration remains open until the day of the event.

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.

06/11/2026

This Juneteenth, 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. Tours will depart Hall Tavern 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. and are included with general admission.

As part of Historic Deerfield’s ongoing commitment to broadening visitor knowledge and experience, the Museum has partnered with the Witness Stones Project (now affiliated with Historic New England), with a unique approach to memorializing enslaved individuals. Inspired by the Stolpersteine project in Germany commemorating victims of the N***s, the Witness Stones Project works to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities.

Accompanying the tours, visitors are invited to learn about the life of an enslaved man named Prince, who attempted self-emancipation from his enslaver, Joseph Barnard. Through an ad in a Boston newspaper, several items of clothing are described, and Historic Deerfield has had two of those items reproduced by master tailor Henry Cooke. These items, a checked linen shirt and a wool coat, will be on display in Hall Tavern.

After your tour, be sure to stop by our bookstore and peruse our section of books on Black History, including Gretchen Gerzina's Mr. and Mrs. Prince, which tells the story of Lucy Terry, the first known African-American poet, and Abijah Prince, her husband, who was a veteran of the French and Indian wars and an entrepreneur.

Learn more about the Witness Stones Project at Historic Deerfield at https://www.historic-deerfield.org/witness-stones-project/.

06/09/2026

Looking for some family-friendly fun this month? Come by the Discovery Center (open 12 to 4:30 p.m. every weekend in June) for "Top Secret Fun: Spies, Ciphers, and Secret Codes," where you can try your hand at invisible ink and secret codes, just like spies used during the American Revolution!

06/08/2026

Register now for Dublin Seminar, coming up June 26–27!

06/05/2026

Come by the Apprentice's Workshop tomorrow (Saturday, June 6) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a historic trade demonstration of chairmaking with Charles Thompson! Thompson will be working on a chair based on a birdcage Windsor in Historic Deerfield's collection (the last image), which was made by Spoon & Fitts in Athol.

06/04/2026

James Morgan operated a pottery business before enlisting in the New Jersey militia, where he rose to the rank of captain. Like powder horn carvers, Morgan mixed symbolic and figurative elements to decorate this utilitarian flask. On the reverse of the bottle, he boldly painted the date 1776. On the front, he included an image of camp life: the large marquee tent that housed officers, standing before a line of simple wedge tents for recruits.

Learn more stories like this at Picturing the Revolution, one of the three Revolution-themed exhibitions on view at the Flynt Center.
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Flask, Attributed to James Morgan (1734–1784), Morgan Pottery (1775–1784), Cheesequake, New Jersey. Dated 1776. Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt slip. Collection of Joseph P. Gromacki.

06/02/2026

There's a new theme this month in the Hall Tavern Kitchen: Revolutionary Recipes!

Every Saturday in June from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., our hearth cooks will be exploring common dishes of the 1770s. While many men went to war during the Revolution, women remained in Deerfield, feeding their families. Come and see what was on the menu for families during the Revolutionary period. Included with general admission.

Come by and see what our hearth cooks whip up!