Events

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 …

Author, biographer and Tufts University professor Julie Dobrow’s new book, Love and Loss After Wounded Knee: A Biography of an Extraordinary Interracial Marriage, tells the complicated story of the lives and marriage of Elaine Goodale and Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman. In this talk, Dubrow will discuss her book and the fascinating way in which she …

Herman Melville didn't just stay holed up in his study at Arrowhead. He went to the center of Pittsfield frequently, attended church there and lived off South Street for one year. Check out the places around Park Square that Melville frequented and even used in his writing. Join author and historian John Dickson for an …

The Berkshire County Historical Society’s Melville Press celebrates the  publication of Ye Trodden Path, a collaboration of local historians and authors Bernard Drew of Great Barrington; Gary Leveille of the Great Barrington Historical Society; Rob Hoogs, Monterey Historical Society; Ron Bernard, Sandisfield Historical Commission; and Tom Ragusa, Otis Historical Commission with a free authors talk …

Led by Cynthia Farr Brown, Neighbors and Strangers links the "big story" of America's rapidly changing population during the 19th and early 20th centuries, as European immigrants flocked to the United States to realize opportunities and escape oppression or catastrophe, to a series of sites in downtown Pittsfield. Learn about how Irish, German, French, and …