Online Exhibitions and Collections Highlights

Wallpaper at Historic New England

Let Historic New England help you explore wallpaper in New England from the 1750s to the 1950s. More information and access to Historic New England's extensive wallpaper collection are just a click away.

A Changing World: New England in the Photographs of Verner Reed, 1950-1972

Verner Reed worked for Life magazine from 1953 to 1958, and his photographs were also featured in national magazines such as Fortune and Time, as well as in Vermont Life and other regional publications. Key themes emerge in this overview of Reed's work, including the contrast between rural and urban life, the person-to-person directness of American politics, the evolving notion of "the famous," awareness of environmental issues, and an affection for "old New England" as an ideal way of life. The exhibition draws from the Verner Reed Archive, donated to Historic New England by Verner and Deborah Reed in 2002.

Jewelry at Historic New England

The collection is diverse in forms and materials and represents the variety of jewelry fashions that were popular with New Englanders over the past three centuries. It also reflects the rich history of jewelry making in New England beginning with individual goldsmiths in the eighteenth century and ending with the large costume jewelry companies of the twentieth century.

From Dairy to Doorstep

Two hundred years ago New England milk and cream traveled only a short distance from the cow to the table. In the hundred years between 1860 and 1960, people moved away from farms and cows, and dairying changed from women's work at home into a mechanized industry.

Lost Gardens of New England

Lost Gardens of New England invites you to consider the region's rich heritage of garden design. Drawn from an exhibition culled from Historic New England's Library and Archives, these images illustrate the major themes of American landscape history.

Newbury Furniture

The following presentation highlights thirteen pieces from Historic New England's collection of Newbury and Newburyport furniture made in these towns from the mid-eighteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.

The Preservation Movement Then and Now

This traveling exhibition, consisting of 13 wall-hanging panels, traces the history of the preservation movement in New England.