Fruitlands Museum in

Harvard, Massachusetts Harvard is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 25 miles west-northwest of Boston, in eastern Massachusetts. A farming community settled in 1658 and incorporated in 1732, it has been home to severa ...

, is a museum about multiple visions of America on the site of the short-lived

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

community, Fruitlands. The museum includes the Fruitlands farmhouse (a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

), a museum about Shaker life, an art gallery with 19th-century landscape paintings, vernacular American portraits, and other changing exhibitions, and a museum of Native American history. Visitors can tour the farmhouse, which has been restored to appear as it did during the 1840s, and exhibits about

Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

and the Alcott family. Fruitlands offers a diverse schedule of contemporary exhibits, lectures, outdoor concerts and easy walking trails. There is also a museum store and restaurant. The properties are overseen by

The Trustees of Reservations The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit orga ...

History

Fruitlands, inspired by

and

Amos Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and ...

's ideas of societal reform, was established on purchased by Charles Lane in May 1843. People interested in joining the community began moving in the next month and the site was optimistically named "Fruitlands" despite having only a small cluster of apple trees. The community was based on self-sufficiency, using no hired labor and growing all the food they needed themselves. The community ultimately failed because of the difficulty in growing crops. Community members began moving away as early as October 1843; Lane and Alcott abandoned it in January 1844. The property was purchased in 1910 by

Clara Endicott Sears Clara Endicott Sears (1863–1960) was a New England author, preservationist, and philanthropist. Biography Sears was born to a wealthy Yankee family in Boston in 1863. Her parents were Knyvet Winthrop Sears and Mary Crowninshield (Peabody) Sears ...

, who opened the farmhouse to the public in 1914 as a museum. In addition to the Fruitlands building, the site now includes a transplanted Shaker house from the nearby Harvard Shaker Village, Native American artifacts and

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area ...

paintings. The museum is primarily the result of the efforts of Sears, a

preservationist Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

. From 2015 through 2019, Fruitlands was the site of an amateur cyclocross race. Notorious for the rough surface of the course as well as the often muddy off-cambers utilized, it became a favorite amongst the New England cyclocross community. No race was held in 2020, the first year of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. As of July 2021, no further races have been scheduled.

The Trustees of Reservations

From 1930 until 2016, Fruitlands was an independent non-profit organization. In 2016, the museum merged with

. From a report in the Boston Globe: “'Fruitlands and The Trustees’ missions are so well aligned in our desire to build connections between nature, art, and culture among people of all ages and to provide opportunities for lifelong learning and engagement,' said Marie LeBlanc, chairwoman of the Fruitlands board. 'We are confident that The Trustees will provide the platform Fruitlands needs to continue to grow, care for, and share its important legacy and collections.'" Michael Busack currently serves as the museum director since his appointment in 2019.

References

Sources

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External links

Fruitlands Museum
The Trustees of Reservations
Trail map
{{authority control 1914 establishments in Massachusetts

Art museums and galleries in Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the N ...

Buildings and structures in Harvard, Massachusetts Historic districts in Worcester County, Massachusetts Historic house museums in Massachusetts Houses in Worcester County, Massachusetts Museums in Worcester County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts Native American museums in Massachusetts Open-air museums in Massachusetts Shaker communities or museums Shingle Style architecture in Massachusetts The Trustees of Reservations

History

The Trustees of Reservations

See also

References

Sources

External links