There are many small historical museums in the valley that go unnoticed. They often have very small operating budgets, and their curation and management is frequently a labor of love by dedicated volunteers. These places are hidden gems; small treasure troves of artifacts and documents of local history.
We’ve just read a nice post about one these small museums by local blogger Tommy Devine — about the Calvin Coolidge Museum in Northampton. The museum is located on the second floor of the Forbes library. Devine gives a good brief review including photos. (FYI: Calvin Coolidge was mayor of Northampton, MA from 1910 to 1911).
A quick list of local historical museums we could find online includes:
- Skinner Museum, South Hadley
- Historic Northampton
- Historic Deerfield
- Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Springfield
- Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst
- Amherst History Museum
- Porter-Phelps-Huntington House, Hadley
- Hadley Farm Museum
- Kingman Tavern Museum, Cummington
- The William Cullen Bryant Homestead, Cummington
- The Stone House Museum, Belchertown
- Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke
Wow. Quite a list. We’re sure there are more of these great little places that we’re unaware of.
2 Comments
Hey, thanks for the plug for small historical museums. There are many more wonderful gems like the ones mentioned throughout the Pioneer Valley. The Pioneer Valley History Network is a new organization that helps link these historical museums and sites. They have a listserv (above) and soon will have a website. It can be a great source of information for anyone seeking to explore historical resources in the area. Thanks, again.
Cliff – thank so much for the info. Please let us know when the website launches.
Even the small list we found is great & we look forward to visiting them all (we’ve already been to some of ‘em). We’d love to know about more.