Events

Between December 1775 and March 1776, Henry Knox was ordered by General George Washington to do the unthinkable—transport artillery that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga and Fort George in New York to the Continental Army in the outskirts of Boston in order to drive the occupying British forces out of the important port city. …

Close out Pittsfield’s 10 x10 Upstreet Arts Festival with a free family-friendly snowshoe hike around the grounds of Herman Melville’s historic house and farm, Arrowhead. This easy walk includes an introduction to the site and brief history of Herman Melville’s life there as well as a scavenger hunt. Learn about Melville’s sleigh rides and decide …

Herman Melville is one of the greatest writers in world literature and his own quest to understand more of his Scottish ancestry has been noted but rarely explored to any depth. The Scottish recognition of Melville's ancestry was established by Hugh MacDiarmid in the 1920s and extends into present-day scholarship and evolving understanding of his …

The Pittsfield Town Farm, or Poor Farm, now the site of Berkshire Community College. In this lecture presented by the Berkshire County Historical Society and The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Cynthia Farr Brown examines questions related to related to poverty and public relief in the Berkshires before 1935. What happened two centuries ago when people …

  SOLD OUT Robert Oakes, ghost tour guide and author of Ghosts of the Berkshires, will team up with paranormal investigator Drew Babineau, owner of The Haunted Raven, to offer a combined ghost tour and paranormal investigation of the Country Club of Pittsfield At the start of the evening, Oakes will lead a walk by …

Celebrate Arrowhead’s summer opening with free fun for the whole family.  Activities include free wagon rides, story hour featuring children’s books based on classic Melville tales, silk screening demonstrations with Penny Arcade Press, and a book launch and signing  for Herman Melville in the Berkshires by John Dickson, historian and BCHS volunteer. FREE EVENT - …

The Berkshire County Historical Society welcomes Gail Gelburd to Arrowhead for a talk about her new book, The Liberation of Sue Moody: Slaying Dragons. Based on the journals and letters of former Otis resident Sue Moody, the book is a gripping chronicle of a woman from the Berkshires who, as a journalist in 1939 Paris, …

Barbara Viniar, author of Little Bird, will discuss her unexpected path to writing historical fiction, inspired by an old photograph of her grandmother. She will talk about combining research and imagination to create the compelling story of a young immigrant who defies societal expectations to lead a fulfilling life.  Use the BOOK NOW button to purchase …

EVENT CANCELLED Well-known ghost tour guide Robert Oakes, author of Ghosts of the Berkshires, will discuss the supernatural influences on the imagination of author Herman Melville, as well as the ghostly writings of Melville’s friend and frequent Arrowhead visitor Nathaniel Hawthorne. The talk will be followed by a lantern-lit ghost tour of Melville’s historic home.  Use …