Concord Museum

Located in Concord, Massachusetts, in The Concord Museum connects people to Concord’s multi-faceted history and its continuing influence on American cultural, political, environmental, and literary life. Founded in 1886, the Museum houses one of the most notable collections of American material culture and decorative arts in the country, consisting of over 45,000 objects that bring Concord’s past to life.

The Museum showcases the many layers of Concord’s remarkable history, including Concord’s pivotal role in the beginning of the American Revolution, the writings of celebrated Transcendentalist authors including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, the rich history and continued presence of local Indigenous communities, a strong legacy of social justice activism, and innovations in education and agriculture. A regional leader in object-based learning, the Museum offers cutting-edge school programming and teacher resources, as well as life-long learning opportunities through exhibitions and public programs.

The Museum has scores of objects that witnessed the pivotal events of April 19, 1775, that set the American Revolution in motion. Perhaps most prominent among these is the original lantern used as a signal on the night of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride.

Other remarkable objects include muskets, flints, powder horns, supplies, and a piece of the Old North Bridge. Together these objects give an hour-by-hour account of that monumental day in American history and expand our understanding of the many people involved in the Revolution.

Other collection strengths include objects related to Concord’s celebrated history of literary and social justice movements. The Museum holds more objects related to Henry David Thoreau than anywhere else in the world, including his desk, bed, and rocking chair from his time at Walden, his walking stick and spyglass, and other instruments and personal items. The Museum also houses Ralph Waldo Emerson’s original study as well as the desk he used to write Nature. Additionally, visitors can view the kettle of Louisa May Alcott.

The Concord Museum houses a significant collection of approximately 10,000 objects representing decorative arts and household items, including furniture, textiles, ceramics, silver, and other household items that are known to have been made, used, or owned in Concord. The historic clothing collection includes over 2,000 pieces, consisting of dresses, shirts, uniforms, coats, pants, vests, shoes, hats, and stockings. Many pieces in the collection have a recorded ownership to Concord residents, preserving a record of the town’s fashion scene over time and providing insights into local, regional, national, and global use, consumption, production, and trade. A large collection of timepieces and historical scientific instruments provides insight into a significant history of technology and scientific observation in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The Museum also houses objects connected to members of Concord’s African American community, including a looking glass owned by Case Whitney around the time of the Revolution and portraits of the Garrison family from the mid-19^th century. The Museum's Musketaquid Galleries present the long history and continued presence of Indigenous communities, beginning 12,000 years ago and continuing to the present day.

The Concord Museum’s founding collector, Cummings Davis, began gathering significant historical objects in the 1850s. On view to the public, these objects consisted mainly of local 17^th- and 18^th-century domestic items, objects associated with April 19, 1775, and those linked to author Henry David Thoreau. The Concord Antiquarian Society was officially formed in 1886, and in 1907 the Society began displaying its significant holdings through carefully curated period rooms, making Concord a destination for the colonial revival movement.

Over the next century, the Society continued to gradually expand its collection, attract more visitors, and in the 1970s began its first school and public programs. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Concord Museum – as it was now officially known – began displaying special exhibitions and rotating galleries while also increasing the Museum’s active collecting, with significant additions of Concord silver, clocks, and wooden furniture. In recent decades, the Museum has continued to modernize, undergoing major renovations in 2021 which included 16 redesigned and interactive galleries, new state-of-the-art collection storage facilities, and the establishment of the Rasmussen Education Center.

Today, the Museum connects visitors to Concord’s multi-faceted history and continuing influence on American cultural, political, environmental, and literary life. Through special exhibitions, the Museum shares inclusive stories from its collection of over 45,000 objects, often in collaboration with other institutions and contemporary artists. The Museum’s school programs serve over 14,000 K-12 students annually, offering a broad range of hands-on learning activities that emphasize Indigenous history, the American Revolution, colonial life, and Concord’s celebrated literary history. Public Programs gather the community to foster dialogue on a diverse range of historical, contemporary, and cultural topics that resonate with Concord’s history.

• Concord Museum

42°27′27.7″N 71°20′31.7″W / 42.457694°N 71.342139°W / 42.457694; -71.342139