Please join us in welcoming several of our past artists (and some new friends, too!) to the Visitor Center as part of the Suffield 350th Celebration! Explore their creations, learn about their inspiration & discover which works they have chosen for this special anniversary commemoration in the gallery.
How old is your house? In the first program of our series, we’ll take a look at our 260 year old house and explore how historians take care of something very old. Enjoy a reading of The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and point out the differences between your house and ours.
The Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden presents a two-person exhibition featuring [...]
Goodbye winter, hello spring! Now in its 44th year, the [...]
See Phelps-Hatheway come to life during the Suffield Garden Club’s May Market! Embark on a garden-themed tour of the museum and an exciting scavenger hunt of the gardens as they begin to bloom. Plant seeds for summer herbs and share stories about your favorite flowers.
View the stunning homes and parcels that make up the historic district along Suffield's Main Street and learn about the town's rise to prominence in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
It’s pollinator season! Let’s take a look at all of the pollinator friends that live in the garden and the much bigger living things who provide food, shade, and shelter. Then, meet inside the House to find bugs, birds and trees represented in the museum and learn about how CTL staff cares for the collection. Collect bright green leaves from the gardens to make your own masterpiece!
Guests will have the opportunity to participate in this celbration of Connecticut's stunning historic green spaces by visiting one of 15-member gardens around the state. For more information visit cthistoricgardens.org
The Declaration of Independence was read publicly for the very first time in Suffield on July 8, 1776. Visitors will read this important document together and wonder how the Burbank family may have thought of the new nation. Inside the museum, hear about the first newspapers and how residents were informed of important events. Budding journalists will create their own front page to share with others. Which stories will you include?
Exciting discoveries await those who venture into secrete spaces! Phelps-Hatheway's believed summer program returns for 2022 with new activities and crafts in store.
Explore the places in the museum where the Burbank, Phelps, and Hatheway families kept cool (or at least tried to!) and learn about personal hygiene in the 18th and 19th centuries. Visitors will entertain themselves with simple games and make a handmade fan to refresh weary bodies.
Did you ever wonder what school was like in the 18th and 19th centuries? If you think that your classes are long and homework tedious, think again! Learn about Suffield’s first schoolhouse, the subjects' children studied, and what happened when their homework was late. Practice your penmanship with a quill pen, draw figures on a small chalkboard and practice times tables using bean bags.
After the Revolutionary War, Oliver Phelps attempted to settle over one million acres of land in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Learn about the Connecticut Western Reserve and the original peoples that once inhabited this area. Hear beloved stories of the Iroquois people and how they preserved the harvest. Create your own nature story illustrated with leaf rubbings to delight your family and friends!
Debora Reynolds of Old Hill Gardens will lead participants through the age-old process of creating an evergreen wreath inspired by the natural landscape.
Join students from Suffield Academy as they install and dedicate the Witness Stones memorializing two enslaved people listed under Oliver Phelps’ 1790 census record. Their research showed that when Lewis and Barbara Butler later moved to Canandaigua, NY, they helped their daughter Patience and her husband Austin Steward establish deep ties to the Underground Railroad network in the Rochester area, a community that later assisted Frederick Douglass with his abolitionist work in the region.