Discover the rich history of the region with Historic New England’s Program in New England Studies, an intensive week-long exploration of New England from Monday, June 18 to Saturday, June 23.

Program in New England Studies includes lectures by noted curators and architectural historians, hands-on workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, and special access to historic house museums and museum collections. The program examines New England history and material culture from the seventeenth century through the Colonial Revival. Curators lecture on furniture, textiles, ceramics, art, and wallpaper and cover their history, craftsmanship, and changing methods of production. Architectural historians explore a time line of regional architecture starting with the Massachusetts Bay styles of the seventeenth century through the Federal and Georgian eras, to Gothic Revival and the Colonial Revival. Participants visit historic sites and museums with curators and enjoy special receptions.

Expert lecturers include:

Richard Candee, professor emeritus, Boston University

Cary Carson, retired vice president of the research division at Colonial Williamsburg

Abbott Lowell Cummings, former director, Historic New England

James L. Garvin, state architectural historian, New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources

J. Ritchie Garrison, director, Winterthur Program in Early American Material Culture

Brock Jobe, professor of decorative arts, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture

Dean Lahikainen, curator of American decorative arts, Peabody Essex Museum

Jane C. Nylander, president emerita, Historic New England

Richard C. Nylander, curator emeritus, Historic New England

Robert Blair St. George, associate professor of history, University of Pennsylvania

Gerald W. R. Ward, senior consulting curator and Katharine Lane Weems senior curator emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Richard Guy Wilson, chair, Department of Architectural History, University of Virginia

The group enjoys several receptions at private homes and travels to sites throughout New England for tours at Historic New England properties in Greater Boston; Essex County, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; South Berwick, Maine; and Woodstock, Connecticut; plus workshops in furniture, ceramics, and textiles at the Collections and Conservation Center in Haverhill, Massachusetts. There is a private tour of the Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with Curator Gerald Ward, in-depth tours by Abbott Lowell Cummings and Cary Carson of Historic New England’s Newbury, Massachusetts, properties; and a tour and reception of the Ayer Mansion in Boston, the country’s only surviving residence created by Louis Comfort Tiffany. 

Fees and Registration

The $1,500 fee includes all lectures, admissions, guided tours, transportation to and from special visits and excursions, daily breakfast and lunch, scheduled evening receptions, and various service charges. Three scholarships are available to mid-career museum professionals and graduate students in the fields of architecture, decorative arts, material culture, or public history. Program in New England Studies is designed to appeal to owners of historic houses, collectors, museum professionals, graduate students, and those who enjoy New England history, and is limited to twenty-five participants.

For more information on the program, call 617-994-6629 or visit our website.