BY ERICA LOME, PhD
A New Concord Museum Experience 26
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Discover CONCORD | Fall 2021
Regiment marched to join the Civil War on Museums do not often get to reinvent April 19, 1861. themselves, but the Concord Museum seized The pursuit of liberty in Concord did not this once-in-a-generation opportunity after always live up to the ideal. The Concord renovating their main building and constructing Museum’s new galleries recognize the town’s a new Education Center in 2018. Years in the historic ties to the slave trade, as well as the making, the curatorial team took advantage of violence and dispossession its English colonists over a dozen empty galleries and a world-class inflicted on local Native communities. In the first collection and embarked on a major project that would transform the Concord Museum and gallery, a sword which descended in the Clark family of Concord and was worn by a militia visitor experience. This August, that exciting officer in the 1600s tells parallel narratives: one and challenging process concluded with the of Massachusetts Bay Colony’s restoration of opening of ten new permanent galleries. their charter-granted rights in 1689 and another The earliest phase of this project featured of Native resistance in the wake of escalating two new galleries: Concord: At the Center of disputes over land, resources, political authority, Revolution, which introduces visitors to the and spirituality in 1675. This sword may very history of Concord through ten iconic artifacts, well have been present for both. and People of Musketaquid, which brings together the history and artistic traditions of Concord’s Indigenous community. Last year, the Museum opened three additional galleries centered on the revolutionary events of April 19, 1775. The final phase of the New Museum Experience builds on these narratives while exploring new terrain. Taking advantage of every room, hallway, alcove, and ramp, these latest galleries provide a comprehensive glimpse into the everyday lives of Concord Chest, 1690-1700. Concord Museum, Gift of residents, some famous Mrs. Selden A. Jacobs and Samuel D. Robbins; F128. and others almost invisible, beginning with the town’s incorporation Another gallery explores the issue of slavery in 1635. These galleries also feature the finest in Concord, using maps, probate records, and most significant objects from the Concord and other archival material to bring to life the Museum’s collection and tell stories that are experiences of the men, women, and children new, engaging, and inclusive. whom the law referred to as “servants for Like their fellow immigrants, the fourteen life.” By 1830, when the institution of slavery English families who came to Concord had ended in Massachusetts, Concord was in 1635 aimed to create a society where home to 30 African American inhabitants, they could worship and govern without including the Garrison family. Jack Garrison oversight. A royal charter guaranteed that (1768-1860) arrived in Concord in 1810, having Massachusetts Bay colonists enjoy the same fled enslavement in New Jersey. Two years “liberties and immunities” as any English later, he married Susan Robbins Middleton, subject. Over the next 140 years, the people who had grown up in Concord. Jack Garrison of Concord fiercely protected those liberties became a familiar sight around town and was even when it was considered treasonous gifted a walking stick at the age of 92 to honor to do so. The new galleries explore this his longevity. This walking stick, displayed in theme through multiple revolutions linked the gallery along with his portrait, acts as one by the remarkable coincidence of their date: entry point to explore the African American Concord’s participation in the ousting of the experience in Concord. Included here are British Governor Edmund Andros on April 19, artifacts associated with the Concord Female 1689; to the war for independence sparked Anti-Slavery Society, established by Mary in Concord on April 19, 1775; and when Merrick Brooks in 1830 to raise awareness and members of Concord’s Fifth Massachusetts