Past Events

Join us and our friends at Hot Plate Brewing Co. (1 School Street, Pittsfield, MA) for a special marathon reading of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor. The event is the official kickoff of a months-long celebration of the centennial of the novella's publication.  To mark the occasion, Sarah Real, Hot Plate owner and head brewer,  has created an English IPA, appropriately named the Handsome Sailor. Sign up for a reading slot or just come, imbibe, and listen! Published posthumously in…

In 2020 scholars Robert K. Wallace and Samuel Otter set out to create a website that would allow viewers to see all the prints Herman Melville is known to have collected, to appreciate the passion with which he acquired them, and to recognize the illumination they bring to his life, his writing, and his living legacy as an interdisciplinary intellect and global citizen. Join us as we present a virtual lecture by Wallace and Otter during which they will discuss…

Berkshire County Historical Society Melville Fellows and Berkshire Community College (BCC) Honors Scholar Program students  Rowan Boyer, Mwila Malama and Clarise Seguin  have been busy creating original writings and art while spending time at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead, the location where Melville wrote “Moby-Dick,” working with Writer-in-Residence Emeritus Jana Laiz.  On May 8 they will present a public reading of their works in Melville Hall’s Room M-21 at BCC on West Street in Pittsfield. It is free and open to the public.…

Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Join author Lee McColgan for a free lecture and book signing during which he will share his renovation tales of the Loring House as detailed in his new book, A House Restored.  Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs…

We can’t know how Herman Melville sounded or hear his characters’ voices…or can we? In linguistics, the study of language, we can study how English has changed since Melville’s time and why languages are always changing. Join us as we welcome linguist Wren Wood to Arrowhead for a lecture demonstrating how we can hear Melville’s dialect in samples of his work, even without audio recording.  Wren Wood is a linguist and webmaster for the Chicopee Historical Society. They use maps,…

Birds are miraculous!  Especially in Spring when they dazzle us with bright, nuptial colors and serenade us with a profusion of happy song.  Join us for a  bird walk led by Ben Nickley, Director of Berkshire Bird Observatory.  Ben will help us find and identify many newly arrived migratory birds as we explore the historic grounds of Arrowhead together.  Come celebrate  nature, renewal, and all that birds do to inspire and uplift us.  Ben Nickley loves sharing his passion for…

SOLD OUT! The Berkshire County Historical Society presents Sailing Towards My Father, a one-man play about Herman Melville performed by Stephen Collins and written and directed by Carl A. Rossi. The play chronicles Melville’s life from youth to old age, concentrating on his evolution as a writer and his complex relationship with God; his parents and siblings; his wife and children; and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The performance takes place at Herman Melville’s historic home Arrowhead at 5:30 pm.  About Stephen Collins…

Alex Harvey is an old world folklorist who performs street ballads and songs of the sea in a project he calls ShinBone Alley. At his performances listeners learn to celebrate the haunting intercultural exchange of 18th and 19th century maritime music - whose ingredients travelled from the furthest corners of the globe to be remade and stitched anew by sailors of every shade and shape at port and at sea. By teaching the audience to join in on most of…