At Historic New England Museums and Online

Historic New England exhibitions showcase the nation’s most extensive collection of New England objects and archival materials.

More than a Market is on display in Burlington, Vermont

Historic New England celebrates local, immigrant-owned markets with the exhibit More than a Market: Food, Community, and Family in the Markets of Burlington and Winooski, Vermont, at the Old North End Community Center in Burlington.

 

The exhibit is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. through May 2023. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

A community space

“For people newly arrived in this country, local markets provide more than familiar food. They are places of connection and social support, and they offer owners and their families a path to economic independence. This was true in the past and continues today,” says Charlotte Barrett, Community Preservation Manager for Historic New England. “The stories of markets established by immigrants and refugees embody timeless values of hard work, resourcefulness, resilience, and commitment to family and community.”

More to explore

The web app MorethanaMarket.org has archival photos, audio clips, and stories about early markets.

For more information and to see additional images.

Past Exhibitions 

Loud, Naked & in Three Colors: the History of Tattooing in Boston

 

This Historic New England exhibition explored an art form that was once banned in Boston, but today is seen as a creative mode of self-expression.

Loud, Naked, & in Three Colors: the History of Tattooing in Boston explores this phenomenon through a stunning selection of flash art, photography, and advertisements that paint a rich picture of this unique period in the history of tattooing. The exhibition traces the popularization of tattooing in Boston through the stories and memorabilia of the city’s leading tattoo pioneers.

The exhibition featured the work of Frank Howard and the Liberty family who dominated Boston’s tattoo scene from their shops in Scollay Square. Their stories reveal the complex and nonconformist tattoo culture and the people, businesses, and communities surrounding the tattoo trade.

See additional images.

Loud, Naked & in Three Colors: the History of Tattooing in Boston was on view at the Eustis Estate in Milton, Mass., through October 30, 2022.

Watch This Space: Expressions of Queer Ecology in South Berwick Maine

The exhibition was a collaboration between Historic New England and Maine College of Art & Design.

The artists explored themes of queer ecology, from questioning the human versus nature paradigm to celebrating the beauty of transgenderism, with works in painting, mixed media, sculpture, and video.

Watch This Space featured the work of six Maine College of Art & Design alumni, including Kyle Hardy, Lindsay Mercer, olivier, Mai Snow, Benjamin Spalding, and Shel Stefan.

The exhibition was on view at Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum and Visitor Center through October 2022.

More than forty works of art from the Historic New England collection were on display during Artful Stories: Painting From Historic New England. The exhibition provided a fresh look at the regional stories told through art – stories about the people who sat for portraits, the artists, the owners, and the places. If you missed the exhibition while it was on display at the Eustis Estate, you can still see these exquisite works of art by by visiting online.

• Explore Artful Stories online.

 

In 2021, Historic New England and New England Sculptors Association (NESA) partnered on an outdoor sculpture exhibition, Looking Back with 2020 Vision. It featured more than twenty-five sculptures by New England artists that reflected issues that were at the forefront in 2020. Learn more.

Learn more about these and other exhibitions