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The Concord Museum is a museum of local history located at 53 Cambridge Turnpike,
Founded in 1886, the museum's collections started around 1850. Few collections of early Americana are as old or well documented. Its most notable items and collections include:
* The "one if by land, and two if by sea" lantern, said to be hung in the
Concord Museum
{{coord, 42, 27, 27.7, N, 71, 20, 31.7, W, region:US, display=title Museums in Concord, Massachusetts History museums in Massachusetts Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums
The Concord Museum is a museum of local history located at 53 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord, Massachusetts
Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...
, United States, and best known for its collection of artifacts from authors Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
and Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...
. Updated hours are available on their website (concordmuseum.org), and an admission fee is charged.
Overview
Founded in 1886, the museum's collections started around 1850. Few collections of early Americana are as old or well documented. Its most notable items and collections include:
* The "one if by land, and two if by sea" lantern, said to be hung in the Old North Church
Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End, Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related ...
in 1775, and immortalized in the 1860 poem "Paul Revere's Ride
"Paul Revere's Ride" is an 1860 poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that commemorates the actions of American patriot Paul Revere on April 18, 1775, although with significant inaccuracies. It was first published in the January 186 ...
" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
.
* American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
artifacts including powder horn
A powder horn is a container for gunpowder, and was generally created from cow, ox or buffalo horn. The term may also be used for any personal container for gunpowder, although powder flask is the strictly correct term.
Features
Typically th ...
s, musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...
s, cannonballs, and fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
s
* A recreation of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
's study, including his books and furnishings, arranged as at his death in 1882.
* The world's largest collection of Thoreau possessions (over 250 objects), including the bed, desk, and chair from his cabin at Walden Pond
Walden Pond is a pond in Concord, Massachusetts, in the United States. A famous example of a kettle hole, it was formed by retreating glaciers 10,000–12,000 years ago. The pond is protected as part of Walden Pond State Reservation, a state par ...
, where Thoreau wrote his 1849 book ''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
''A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers'' (1849) is a book by American writer Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). It recounts his experience on a boat trip with his brother on the Concord River and Merrimack River.
Overview
''A Week on the ...
'' and gained the inspiration for his 1854 book ''Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
''.
The museum's collection of 17th, 18th, and 19th-century decorative arts includes furniture, clocks, looking glasses, textiles, ceramics, and metalware. Most displayed objects are arranged in the following period settings:
* Early 18th-Century Chamber – a principal room circa 1720 in the house of a prominent Concord citizen.
* Mid 18th-Century Chamber – with tea table and ceramics, silver, etc., as well as period furnishings including high chest, dressing table, and desk.
* Early 19th-Century Chamber – typical period furnishings.
* 19th-Century Parlor, Set for Dining – a dining room furnished to Neoclassical style.
Other museum collections include Native American stone tools, Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
household goods, lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the th ...
and cattle show posters, clocks and other machinery manufactured in Concord, and works by sculptor Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, best known for his 1874 sculpture ''The Minute Man'' in Concord, Massachusetts, and his 1920 monume ...
.
External links
Concord Museum
{{coord, 42, 27, 27.7, N, 71, 20, 31.7, W, region:US, display=title Museums in Concord, Massachusetts History museums in Massachusetts Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums