Standing near Bowman House in Dresden, Maine, on a tranquil, sunny day, it’s almost impossible to imagine that the Kennebec River used to be industrial, noisy, and busy. In the nineteenth century, its banks were lined with massive buildings and sailing ships waited along the shore, ready to carry clear, blue blocks of Maine ice […]
Never was Boston’s “The Hub” moniker more apt than during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, when the city went wild for cycling. Initially a leisure activity enjoyed by upper-class white Protestant men, cycling quickly took off among people of all classes, backgrounds, and races. One of these cyclists was Katherine Towles “Kittie” […]
In 2023 Historic New England awarded the New England Civil War Museum one of its six annual Herbert and Louise Whitney Fund Community Preservation Grants. The grant supports small to midsized organizations in each New England state that are dedicated to saving and sharing their community’s diverse history as part of telling the whole story […]
Sustaining Our Past, written by Historic New England’s Director of Sustainability Joie Grandbois, explores Historic New England’s climate action efforts and highlights how we’re adapting historic sites to meet the challenges of a changing environment. Through project updates, partnerships, community engagement—and the occasional reflection on sustainability in our communities and our daily lives—Joie shares how […]
Objects conservation can be a race against time. Like all collections, ours faces wear and tear, environmental threats, and the more mundane damage that comes with age. Every piece tells a story, and with thirty-eight historic sites and more than 125,000 objects, Historic New England relies on a dedicated team of curators and conservators to care […]
To help mark the occasion of Historic New England’s 115th anniversary in 2025, we are sharing some of our favorite collection stories from Historic New England magazine—which turns twenty-five this year. This month, we revisit an article celebrating summer camps, told through the remarkable collection donated to Historic New England by Richard J. S. and Kellie O. […]
In this month’s installment of Behind the Exhibition, Curator of Collections Erica Lome determines whether three powder horns in our collection actually date from the American Revolution. They will be on display in an upcoming exhibition, Myth and Memory: Stories of the American Revolution, opening May 15, 2026, at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts, as […]
In 2026, to mark our 115th anniversary, Historic New England magazine launched a series of articles exploring the organization’s past. We invited Brian Whetstone, historian and assistant professor of historic preservation at the University of Pennsylvania, to reexamine our early years and twentieth-century evolution with a fresh perspective. In his summer issue article, he introduced many readers […]
It’s summer in New England. The mercury has risen. The air is sticky. Which way to the beach? On Cape Cod, residents of Yarmouth Port and Dennis can find relief from the heat and humidity thanks to two very generous gifts of the Thacher family: Gray’s Beach and Corporation Beach. The Thachers have called Cape […]
Stepping into the greenhouses at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, is like stepping back in time. The estate’s story began in 1793, when Theodore Lyman, a wealthy merchant involved in the East India and China trades, began acquiring land for a summer residence and farm. Guided by his English gardener, William Bell, Lyman developed […]
Since 1979, Theater in the Open has redefined what it means to create and experience live performance in New England. Rooted in the natural beauty of Maudslay State Park in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the company transforms outdoor and nontraditional spaces into stages, blurring the lines between artist, audience, and environment. The organization is also the steward […]
Sustaining Our Past, written by Historic New England’s Director of Sustainability Joie Grandbois, explores Historic New England’s climate action efforts and highlights how we’re adapting historic sites to meet the challenges of a changing environment. Through project updates, partnerships, community engagement—and the occasional reflection on sustainability in our communities and our daily lives—Joie shares how […]
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