Everything for the Garden
A visual delight for garden aficionados, with colorful illustrations from Historic New England's collection. Purchase here.
Magazine: The print edition of Historic New England magazine, published three times a year, is an exclusive benefit of membership. Back issues are archived online for public browsing. Join or renew your membership today to subscribe to Historic New England magazine.
Book Series: Historic New England launched the book series in 2006 to introduce our collections to a wider audience. Drawing on the rich resources of our archival and object collections, these thoroughly researched, beautifully designed, and heavily illustrated publications enrich our knowledge of New England and the wider world. To order your copy of any Historic New England book, please call 617-994-5925, or look for them in our museum shops. Members save 10%.
Cover Story: Reproduction of the pillar and arch wallpaper at Hamilton House in South Berwick, Maine, refreshes the property’s historic decor. This issue also features exterior restoration work at Hamilton House; Historic New England’s western Massachusetts presence in partnership with Greenagers and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy; the permanent Dimensions of Diversity exhibition at Otis House in Boston; and a Burlington, Vermont, archaeological discovery of burials from the War of 1812.
The cover image of a man with full-body tattoo introduces an article about the early twentieth-century history of body art. This issue also features images representing Historic New England’s A Time to Remember COVID-19 crowd-sourced collection project; a photo essay documenting the changing streetscapes and gentrification of Boston’s Chinatown; and articles about the Wabanaki Confederacy’s response to European settler encroachment in the region; slavery in New England and at the Codman Estate, a Historic New England property in Lincoln, Mass.; and the 1817 founding of the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.
This issue is devoted to the exhibition Artful Stories: Paintings from Historic New England, on view at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Mass. It features stories on New England’s women artists, collectors, and patrons; nineteenth-century itinerant painters; Edward Mitchell Bannister, a Black artist in the nineteenth century; paintings of architecture and landscape; men’s clothing in portraits; and the structure of paintings. It also includes Historic New England’s FY20 annual report.
Historic New England’s newly appointed President/CEO Vin Cipolla shares his thoughts on how the organization can best serve the public and why preservation is an essential part of the region’s future. This issue also explores the material culture collection created by Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little; the role the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the movie Little Women; the untold story of slavery at Sayward-Wheeler House in York Harbor, Maine; a citizens’ advocacy guide for saving historic places, such as Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which is associated with W. E. B. Du Bois; the partnership with The History Project in researching the life of Henry Davis Sleeper, a gay man, who created Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, Massachusetts; the domestic architecture of Eleanor Raymond.
Learn about the three recipients of Historic New England’s Prize for Collecting Works on Paper. This issue also looks at some of the conservation preparations for the exhibition Artful Stories: Paintings from Historic New England. Other feature articles include the guest books that economist A. Piatt Andrew used to record visitors to his home, Red Roof, in Gloucester, Mass. Andrew (1873-1936) served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury from 1910-1912, was the founder and director of the American Ambulance Field Service during World War I, and was a Massachusetts congressman from 1921 until his death. He was a close friend and neighbor of interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper. Also, read about the leadership role that women played in the early years of Historic New England, when it was known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities; and view images of iconic architecture from the professional portfolio of photographer Steve Rosenthal.
Stories include collecting a diverse New England, searching for meaning in symbols found in early colonial buildings, Robert Damora’s photos of Walter Gropius and his family, the importance of preserving home movies, the activism of Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and Historic New England’s FY2019 annual report.
A pictorial tour of the landscapes of Historic New England’s properties Inside: Two descendants of Walter Gropius, his granddaughter and great-nephew, share their perspectives on the architect, founder of the German design school the Bauhaus; from the collection, a hand-drawn slave narrative by Pedro Tovookan Parris; historic tiny houses; colonial-era house plays a role in U.S. immigration history; a look at old-school architectural skills.
Historic New England marks the centennial of the Bauhaus, the German design school founded by Walter Gropius, with an exploration of the architect’s work in New England. Inside: efforts to prepare historic properties for climate change; adaptive reuse as a preservation strategy; an examination of the account books of early cabinetmakers’ business dealings.
This issue’s cover story explores the relationship between Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields. Inside, artist Richard Haynes discusses his portrait of New Hampshire freedman Cyrus Bruce; WWI workers’ housing constructed in Quincy, Mass., is recalled; Boston’s City Archaeology Program; development of photograph Christmas cards; unsung preservation architect Henry Charles Dean is recalled. Includes Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2018.
This issue’s cover story is a profile about birding art collector Eddie Woodin, Historic New England’s 2017 recipient of the Prize for Collecting Works on Paper. Also featured are images from the exhibition Head to Toe; the origins of the University of Liberia as Liberia College in the mid-nineteenth century; a history of the landscape at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts; New England’s multifunctional opera houses; the pressed glass doorknobs of Enoch Robinson; Integrated Pest Management strategies.
This issue explores the work of architect Royal Barry Wills, the Nancy Krueger collection of Marimekko dresses, the Everyone’s History documentary film Rooted: Cultivating Community in the Vermont Grange, Modern design in urban affordable housing, Boston’s iconic three-decker houses, and a rediscovered diary and Bible of Revolutionary War figure Captain Offin Boardman.
Features articles on the popular paint-by-number hobby of the mid-twentieth century; research on the story of Zipporah Potter Atkins, who in 1670 became the first black woman on record to buy a house and land in Boston; delving into history at Sarah Orne Jewett House to inspire maker culture; a look at the foods served in restaurants during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the cultural landscape of Nickels-Sortwell House; and Historic New England’s Fiscal Year 2017 Annual Report.
This issue highlights the May 2017 opening of the Eustis Estate Museum in Milton, Massachusetts. Also, summer camp history and culture are explored as well as the continuing efforts by Curtains Without Borders to locate and conserve historic theater curtains, the eclectic archives of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, discovery of the desk of Samuel Appleton, and a Historic New England member’s Instagram travelogue of our properties.
Stories include a unique collection of neon, the legacy of Vermont’s marble industry, an artist-in-residence at Governor John Langdon House, combating masonry deterioration at Castle Tucker, pilot Ripley Miller, a John Singleton Copley portrait at the Codman Estate, discoveries at the Eustis Estate, and Historic New England’s jewelry collection.
Stories include Historic New England’s acquisition of the Brick House at Coolidge Point, in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.; Harrison House in Branford, Conn.; earthenware pottery made in Charlestown, Mass.; the fiftieth anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act; Boston’s Bromley Park; enslaved people in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New Hampshire and Maine; found ceramics; the 100th anniversary of the acquisition of Otis House in Boston; and updates from the Eustis Estate in Milton, Mass.
Summer 2016Explores the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury, Vt.; Cape Cod’s Modern Masters; upgrades to Historic New England’s collections storage facility in Haverhill, Mass.; architect Joseph Collins Wells; and the Irving & Casson – A. H. Davenport Collection.
Winter 2016Stories include discoveries at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Mass; a Q&A with staff at the Lyman Estate Greenhouses; the 100th Historic New England preservation easement; jewelry by Native American artists in New England; Pierce House school programs; and a female African American architect who completed Historic New England’s Program in New England Studies.
Fall 2015Stories include Woolworth’s: Remembering Haverhill’s Shopping District, Collections Care Project, Westerly Armory, garden volunteers, twentieth-century collections, Phillips House Oceanic collections, Maine school programs, and an unusual folk art collection.
Summer 2015Stories include 3-D laser technology at the Eustis Estate; Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House, during World War I; four centuries of Salem history at Gedney House; archaeology at Otis House; a 1910 mural at a Vermont synagogue; Historic New England’s carpenters; and the Great Gale of 1915.
Winter 2015Stories include preserving one-room schoolhouses in Norwich, Vermont; a rare valentine at Quincy House; preservation of the Parish of All Saints in Boston; updates from the Eustis Estate; family papers from Pierce House; and preservation of Jackson House.
Fall 2014Stories include the Irving & Casson – A. H. Davenport Archive, architect Halfdan H. Hanson, twentieth-century collections, a new partnership at Merwin House, plumping curiosities, Castle Tucker’s historic waterfront, and the acquisition of photographs from Edwin Martin’s People of Maine series.
A visual delight for garden aficionados, with colorful illustrations from Historic New England's collection. Purchase here.
A visual delight for garden aficionados, with colorful illustrations from Historic New England's collection. Purchase here.
Discover the stories behind Historic New England's collection of jewelry made and worn in the region. Purchase here.
This colorful history book examines the many ways Maine lighthouses have been perceived in our culture. Purchase here.
Photographs, postcards, and advertisements from Historic New England's collection paint a rich portrait of coastal activity. Purchase here.
Find out what it was like to live and work in kitchens that had none of the conveniences we now take for granted. Purchase here.
Poignant stories of both famous and forgotten players in New England's story. Purchase here.
Illustrates changes in taste and technology and presents drawings of homes as works of art. Purchase here.
The tantalizing personal statement of interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper. Purchase here.
Selections from our historic wallpaper collection. Purchase here.
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