Herman's 200th Birthday Celebration
2019-08-01 10:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Thursday, August 1, all day. Herman’s 200th birthday with a multi-event, day-long extravaganza co-presented with the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum. Starting with free tours of the Athenaeum’s Herman Melville Memorial Room at noon, a 1pm dedication of the Literary Landmark plaque at the Library, then tours at Arrowhead.
At 4:30, the party begins at the Country Club of Pittsfield: cash bar, heavy hors d’oeuvres, a special program with Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, Prosecco toast, and birthday cake. Benefits Berkshire County Historical Society at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead. The Benefit is a ticketed event: $85 for one ticket, and $160 for two. Please RSVP by Friday, July 26.
Call 413.442.1793 or email melville@berkshirehistory.org to reserve your tickets today!
To purchase tickets online, please visit our secure PayPal page via the yellow “Donate” button HERE, and specify the number of tickets to the Benefit in the “Additional Notes” field.

Benefit for the Berkshire County Historical Society at Herman Melville's Arrowhead
2019-08-01 16:30 - 19:00 | Country Club of Pittsfield, 639 South Street, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Join us as we celebrate Herman’s birthday at the Country Club of Pittsfield. This benefit will assist in funding the restoration work needed to preserve our historic red barn, built in 1840 and used by the Melville family. Restoring the exterior cladding and improving drainage will ensure that the barn can be enjoyed for years to come. Paint analysis will enable the barn to return to its original paint color and appearance under Melville ownership. The completion of this project will allow us to expand the barn’s community use, our programming of special events and workshops, and improve the visitor experience upon arriving at Arrowhead. More than half of the work is covered by funds from the Pittsfield Community Preservation Committee and the Massachusetts Preservation Project Fund, but we still need you help to meet our goal! At the Benefit, you will be given the opportunity to contribute to this important project.
After a full day of exciting literary events, head to the Country Club of Pittsfield, the former home of Herman’s uncle Thomas, where the party will kick off at 4:30pm.
4:30 – Cash bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres
5:30 – Special program with Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company
6:30 – Prosecco toast and birthday cake
Benefits Berkshire County Historical Society at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead.
This is a ticketed event: $85 for one ticket, and $160 for two. Please RSVP by Friday, July 26.
Call 413.442.1793 or email melville@berkshirehistory.org to reserve your tickets today!
To purchase tickets online, please visit our secure PayPal page via the yellow “Donate” button HERE, and specify the number of tickets to the Benefit in the “Additional Notes” field.

Annual Moby-Dick Marathon
2019-08-02 10:00 - 2019-08-05 17:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
The third annual Moby-Dick marathon reading will commence in the barn and continue for the next three days until we finish the book. The reading is interrupted, for the morning of Sunday the 4th, so that people can attend the Monument Mountain walk celebrating the day that Melville met Hawthorne. The marathon concludes on Monday, August 5.

Community Day Celebration!
2019-08-03 10:00 - 17:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Community Day Celebration Weekend: 10am-5pm
Due to the forecast, Delilah will be swimming into Pittsfield on Sunday from 10am-4pm
Celebrate Herman Melville’s 200th birthday with a FREE event at Arrowhead!
Come meet Tom Whalen and learn to tie some nautical knots. Herman Melville sailed on a whaling ship before he wrote Moby-Dick and would have known how to tie these same knots!
Also, for kids of all ages, we will have an inflatable bounce house!
Bring a picnic and play croquet on our lawns!
Thanks to Whale and Dolphin Conservation of Plymouth, MA and to generous support from Cultural Pittsfield. Special thanks to Carr Hardware for supplying one of their wonderful bounce houses for the weekend.

Annual Monument Mountain Hike
2019-08-04 09:00 - 11:00 | Monument Mountain, Rte 7, Great Barrington, MA, United States
On Sunday morning, take a walk up Monument Mountain in Great Barrington to celebrate the historic meeting of Melville and Hawthorne. It’s sponsored by the Trustees of the Reservations, the stewards of Monument Mountain, and includes a reading of William Cullen Bryant’s historic poem about the mountain as well as a champagne toast.

MEET DELILAH!
2019-08-04 10:00 - 16:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Community Day Celebration Weekend: 10am-5pm
Due to the forecast, Delilah will be swimming into Pittsfield on Sunday from 10am-4pm
Celebrate Herman Melville’s 200th birthday with a FREE event at Arrowhead!
Melanie Mowinski will demonstrate letterpress printing, 11am-1pm
Also, for kids of all ages, we will have an inflatable bounce house!
Bring a picnic and play croquet on our lawns!
Thanks to Whale and Dolphin Conservation of Plymouth, MA and to generous support from Cultural Pittsfield. Special thanks to Carr Hardware for supplying one of their wonderful bounce houses for the weekend.

Poetry Reading: Pequod Poems
2019-08-20 18:30 - 20:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Wilda Morris, poet, reads from her book “Pequod Poems” at Arrowhead, in the barn, at 6:30pm. Copies of her book will also be for sale that evening. Author of “Szechuan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant” and other books, she is a former President of the Illinois State Poetry Society. She is a winner of the 2009 Prairie Poetry Award and has received two Pushcart nominations. Free event.

Book Release: Cement Dust
2019-08-27 18:30 - 20:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Tuesday, August 27, J. Peter Bergman will read from his new novel, “Cement Dust,” at Arrowhead, in the barn, at 6:30pm. Copies of the book are on sale in the gift shop at Arrowhead. Author of the Charles Dickens Award winning collection of short stories, “Counterpoints,” this is his second published novel. Kirkus Reviews said, “its portrayal of complex, unique relationships is impressive… a rewarding novel about unexpected family ties and the pain of mental illness.”

Architecture and Landscape at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead
2022-05-28 11:00 - 12:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Due to inclement weather, the walk has been POSTPONED until Saturday, June 11, at 11am. See you then!
Veteran tour guide John Dickson and Executive Director Lesley Herzberg lead an enlightening walk through Arrowhead and the surrounding grounds. John Dickson will provide an overview and evolution of the architectural features of the building from the 1780s to the present. This talk is followed by Lesley Herzberg’s walk through the north field to discuss the cultural landscape where the entire Melville family participated in the cultivation of the farm and gardens in the 19th century. (Rain date: May 29, 11 am), FREE
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

Spring Bird Walk
2022-06-04 07:00 - 09:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Join Rene Wendell, president of the Hoffmann Bird Club for a spring migration bird walk. This will be a gentle, slow hike around Arrowhead’s fields and forests appropriate for beginners and experienced birders alike. We will be looking for newly arriving spring migrants such as warbler and flycatcher species like yellow warbler, blackburnian warbler and least flycatcher. Please bring binoculars if you have them, water, and appropriate footwear. Heavy rain will cancel this event. This FREE event is presented in partnership with the Hoffmann Bird Club.
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

Moby-Dick Monologue
2022-06-08 17:30 - 18:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Herman Melville learned about the art of soliloquy from his reading of Shakespeare and after reading the Bard, he re-wrote his whaling epic. Actor and educator Stephen Collins expands on this tradition by performing monologues from Melville’s expansive novel. This performance features the musings of Ishmael, Father Mapple, Captain Peleg, Starbuck, and Ahab. FREE
This event is sponsored by Pittsfield Cooperative Bank and Lee Bank Foundation

Architecture and Landscape at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead
2022-06-11 11:00 - 12:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Veteran tour guide John Dickson and Executive Director Lesley Herzberg lead an enlightening walk through Arrowhead and the surrounding grounds. John Dickson will provide an overview and evolution of the architectural features of the building from the 1780s to the present. This talk is followed by Lesley Herzberg’s walk through the north field to discuss the cultural landscape where the entire Melville family participated in the cultivation of the farm and gardens in the 19th century. FREE
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

Hester Blum on Moby-Dick
2022-06-22 17:30 - 18:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Moby-Dick has a monumental reputation. Less well known are the novel’s unexpectedly weird, funny, tantalizing, messy, and wondrous moments. Hester Blum, leading Melville scholar and editor of the new Oxford World’s Classic edition of Moby-Dick, discusses these moments and her additions and annotations of Melville’s best-known novel. Themes will include the novel’s elasticity and continued relevance for twenty-first-century readers, with attention to its queerness and its meditations on race, power, and disability. FREE
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

Book Talk: Thirty-Five Days To Baltimore
2022-06-24 17:30 - 18:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Join Writer-In-Residence Emeritus, Jana Laiz and Author Alexis Portillo as they celebrate the release of their new book, Thirty-Five Days To Baltimore. This bilingual book explores topics of migration, immigration, poverty, and hope, through the story of an unaccompanied minor, as he makes his way from Honduras to Baltimore, ultimately arriving in the Berkshires. Part of the Berkshire County Historical Society’s Underrepresented Voices initiative. FREE
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

ReWritten
2022-07-22 19:45 - 21:30, 2022-07-23 19:45 - 21:30, 2022-07-24 19:45 - 21:30, 2022-07-29 19:45 - 21:30, 2022-07-30 19:45 - 21:30, 2022-07-31 19:45 - 21:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
ReWritten is an immersive performance that explores the often-silenced intimate relationship between authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Moving between their lives, work, and remaining letters, ReWritten reimagines an intergenerational queer love story that helped shape American literature. Through dance, live music, visual art, projection, and text this performance questions what happens when we say no to dreams when we want to say yes. Co-created and performed by Tom Truss and Matthew Cumbie.
$10 for BCHS members, $15 for non-members, Use your EBT card and get 50% off, 12 and under free. Order tickets here. This event will sell out in advance.
This event is sponsored in part by Lee Bank Foundation and is funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

lecture Lace in American Material Culture: Wealth, Refinement, Sex
2022-07-26 17:00 - 18:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Lace came to America more than 400 years ago. Lightweight, easy to pack, it was an expression of civilized European lifestyle, and brought with it the optimism for a similar life in the New World. Over time, lace defied hardship, celebrated socio-economic advancement, indulged the wealthy, often in unexpected format. During this talk, lace specialist Beverly Wolov will discuss how lace became so deeply imbedded in American material culture. FREE
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

Berkshire County Historical Society Summer Fundraiser
2022-07-27 16:00 - 19:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Enjoy a summer evening at Herman Melville’s historic Arrowhead and support the work of the Berkshire County Historical Society. The evening includes heavy hors d’oeuvres; a silent auction of wonderful packages that highlight the best in Berkshire arts, outdoor experiences, and creations; and a special performance by Tom Truss and Matthew Cumbie based on their work ReWritten. A cash bar is available.

Tickets
Friend – $85 ($160 for 2)
Supporter – $125 ($240 for 2)
About ReWritten:
ReWritten is an immersive performance that explores the often-silenced intimate relationship between authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Moving between their lives, work, and remaining letters, ReWritten reimagines an intergenerational queer love story that helped shape American literature. Through dance, live music, visual art, projection, and text this performance questions what happens when we say no to dreams when we want to say yes. Co-created and performed by Tom Truss and Matthew Cumbie.

Monument Mountain Hike
2022-07-31 09:00 - 11:30 | Monument Mountain, Rte 7, Great Barrington, MA, United States
Celebrate the day (August 4, 1850) Melville met Nathaniel Hawthorne on a hike up Monument Mountain by joining BCHS for a similar hike and reading of local poet William Cullen Bryant’s Monument Mountain. The guided hike takes approximately 2 ½ hours and is appropriate for families. Hikers should meet at the Monument Mountain Reservation Parking lot on Route 7 and should be prepared with their own water, proper footwear, hiking gear and bug repellent. FREE
This event is sponsored by MountainOne Insurance.

Artist talk with Christopher Volpe - Loomings: Melville, Art, and the Climate Crisis
2022-08-24 17:30 - 18:30 | Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, 28 Renne Avenue, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 01201
Moving quickly past general background, process, and materials, this illustrated art talk highlights how Loomings addresses our world’s instability through the metaphors at work in Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s apocalyptic vision of the American quest. Volpe finds in Melville’s account of the doomed commercial whaling voyage of the Pequod a dark, foundational myth of American materialism (and an even darker apocalyptic prophecy of what’s to come). He also finds a “terrible beauty” – and the hope that pairing tragedy and human shortcoming with beauty can redeem our faith in the whole.
This event takes place at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Downtown Pittsfield in conjunction with the exhibit Moby-Dick.
This event is sponsored by Berkshire Bank.
Image: Westward #13 (Westward the Star of Empire Takes its Way), Christopher Volpe. Tar, oil, gold leaf on wood.

Architecture and Landscape at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead
2022-09-11 11:00 - 12:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Join long-time tour guide John Dickson and Executive Director Lesley Herzberg for a walk around Arrowhead’s grounds. John will provide an overview of the architectural features of the building and discuss its evolution from the 1780s to the present. This talk is followed by Lesley Herzberg’s walk through the north field where the Melville family cultivated the farm and gardens in the 19th century. Her talk will focus on Arrowhead’s cultural landscape. (Rain date: Sunday, Sept 18, 11am).
This free event is sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union and is presented as part of the Housatonic Heritage Walks program.

1930s Civilian Conservation Corps Camps: The Genesis of Our State Parks System
2022-09-14 17:30 - 18:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Local historian and author Bernard A. Drew will present a history of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Forest Army of the 1930s, a national program to provide employment, security, and training to young men during the height of the Great Depression. Drew will concentrate on Civilian Conservation Corps facilities in Great Barrington’s Beartown State Forest in and at York Lake in Sandisfield State Forest. Drew will present a visual history of recruit work and leisure utilizing 100 projected images most never shown in the Berkshires or reproduced in books.
Bernard Drew is a newspaper editor and columnist and the author of local Berkshire histories including books about Great Barrington, Monument Mountain, Lake Buel, Beartown, the Knox Trail and, nearing completion, 18th and 19th century water powered industry on the Housatonic River. He is a past president of the Berkshire County Historical Society.
This free program is sponsored by Berkshire Bank and Greylock Federal Credit Union.

Arrowhead Community Day
2022-09-17 10:00 - 16:00 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Join us for a day of free activities and fun celebrating local history!
Architectural tours of Arrowhead’s historic buildings will be offered throughout the day and the grounds will be open for hiking. In addition, a small presentation in the barn explores the sixty-year history of BCHS including highlights from past events, exhibits, and more. The presentation will feature highlights from the BCHS collection that are not normally on view.
BCHS will also welcome representatives from the Bidwell House who will discuss their work and mission and The Crane Museum of Paper Making and the Paper Arts who will assist visitors with papermaking and printing activities. They will be joined by our friends from the Baseball in the Berkshires Museum, whose mission is to present exhibits and educational programs that will assist in telling the story of Baseball in the Berkshires.
The Worthington, Massachusetts food truck Worthy-Que Smoke N’BBQ will be on hand offering smoked meats, fish, and homemade unique eats using farm fresh local ingredients. The Berkshire Cider Project, based in North Adams, will conduct tastings of their dry and sparkling ciders.
Special musical performances by:
Bobby Sweet and Lara Tupper, 11 am – 12 noon
Bobby Sweet (guitar and vocals) and Lara Tupper (vocals) achieve a complementary blend that’s packed with heart, soul, and fun, whether singing new interpretations of their favorite folk/pop songs or Bobby’s original compositions. Bobby, who toured with Arlo Guthrie for many years, is an award-winning singer-songwriter with seven albums. Lara has performed all over the world as a resident vocalist for Hilton Hotels International. With their rich harmonies and natural stage presence, they have a special way of connecting with listeners.
David Hodge, Guitarist, 12:30 – 2:30 pm
David is a long time resident of Egremont, a writer, music teacher, and guitarist “par excellence” who performs a wide range of oldies and current musical selections sure to please a varied listening audience.
Spare Parts, 2:30 – 4 pm
Liz Stell (flute) and Bill Matthiesen (keyboard) will perform music popular or published in the mid-19th century.
This event is sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union.

Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
2022-09-28 17:30 - 18:30 | Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, MA, 01201, United States
Join author and historian Aaron Sachs for a free book signing and discussion of his latest book Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times (Princeton University Press) on Wednesday, September 28 at 5:30 pm. Sachs will be joined in discussion at Arrowhead by author and former University of Albany professor of literature Richard Matturro.

Aaron Sachs is professor of history and American studies at Cornell University. He is the author of The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism and Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition.
Up from the Depths tells the interconnected stories of two of the most important writers in American history—the novelist and poet Herman Melville (1819–1891) and one of his earliest biographers, the literary critic and historian Lewis Mumford (1895–1990). Deftly cutting back and forth between the writers, author Aaron Sachs reveals the surprising resonances between their lives, work, and troubled times—and their uncanny relevance in our own age of crisis.
The author of Moby-Dick was largely forgotten for several decades after his death, but Mumford helped spearhead Melville’s revival in the aftermath of World War I and the 1918–1919 flu pandemic, when American culture needed a forebear with a suitably dark vision. As Mumford’s career took off and he wrote books responding to the machine age, urban decay, world war, and environmental degradation, it was looking back to Melville’s confrontation with crises such as industrialization, slavery, and the Civil War that helped Mumford to see his own era clearly. Mumford remained obsessed with Melville, ultimately helping to canonize him as America’s greatest tragedian. But largely forgotten today is one of Mumford’s key insights—that Melville’s darkness was balanced by an inspiring determination to endure.
“Up From the Depths takes up the dialectic method so central to Melville’s writing for its unique investigation of parallel lives. . . . Fittingly, Mr. Sachs’s chapters interweave periods of the two men’s lives, creating a dappled effect of shared shadows and light. Certain biographical overlaps are particularly striking.” —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

Cemetery Tour of Hillside Cemetery
2022-10-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Hillside Cemetery, Brown Street, North Adams
Where can you find a personal friend of two U.S. Presidents, an attorney who invented a railroad brake, the Father of Archaeological Photography, two physicians who started a school and an eyewitness to President Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address?
Join veteran historian and guide Paul W. Marino for a walk through one of the historic cemeteries of northern Berkshire County. Children are welcome as a treasure hunt will accompany the tour. Please wear sensible walking shoes and meet at the top of the hill off Brown Street in North Adams. (Rain date: Sunday, Oct 9, 2pm)
Click here for tickets; $10 members, $15 non-members

Stockbridge Cemetery Tour
2022-10-15 14:00 - 15:00 | Stockbridge Cemetery, Main Street, Stockbridge, 01262
The Stockbridge Cemetery has been the burial site of Stockbridge residents for over 270 years. Join historian Elizabeth Dillman as we visit the headstones of notable residents and discuss their contributions to the town, the country and the world. And, of course, we’ll visit the Sedgwick Pie! (Rain date: Sunday, October 16, 2pm)
Click here for tickets – $10 members, $15 non-members
This event is sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union.
