Virtual Juneteenth Poetry & Conversation
Friday, June 19, 2020 • 7:00-8:30 p.m. Offered by the Royall House and Slave Quarters, the Shaw 54th Memorial Restoration…
Zoom in on “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Virtual Reading of Frederick Douglass’s Speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Saturday, July 4th • 10…
The Robbins House Receives Grant for Summer Intern
Approximately 10 hrs/wk • Work to be done remotely The Robbins House has been awarded a CARES Act grant for…
Racism and Disenfranchisement: Then and Now
Webinar • June 14th • Sponsored by Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House and The Thoreau Society Jan Turnquist, Executive Director…
Shadows of Liberty Protest
At this time of heightened violence and awareness of inequity toward people of color, we were heartened by the support for our Shadows of Liberty Protest on June 1st. Over 500 people came with signs and masks to listen, learn, and add their thoughts. Our heartfelt thanks to those who joined us!
Black Lives Resources, Recommendations, and Action Items
Books Frugal Bookstore is a Black-owned bookstore in Roxbury taking orders: https://frugalbookstore.net, email: frugal_books@yahoo.com, phone: 617-541-1722 Harvard Gazette Reading List…
Concord Indivisble Protest Event | May 31, 2020
Video clips and photos from the Concord Indivisible protest event in Concord Center on May 31, 2020
Monday, June 1 | Shadows of Liberty | The Robbins House
On Monday, June 1, 2020, at 5 PM, we will be holding a protest to bring more awareness and impactful…
The Robbins House: Closed for 2020
Similar to our peer historical institutions, COVID-19 has compelled The Robbins House to formally close for our 2020 summer and fall season.
New Exhibits in the Works
The Robbins house may be closed for the season, but our board, historians, and designers are busy creating new exhibits for our 2021 season.
![Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? We have you covered with a little Robbins house trivia. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem entitled Peter’s Field. Peter’s Field most likely referenced Peter Hutchinson, who was the last African American owner of The Robbins House. Peter purchased the home in 1852 and lived with his wife, Nancy, and several of their children in the home until 1868. Emerson described Peter’s farm, and by extension the original area of farmland attached to The Robbins House out in the Great Field like this:
KNOWS he who tills this lonely field
To reap its scanty corn,
What mystic fruit his acres yield
At midnight and at morn?]
That field by spirits bad and good,
By Hell and Heaven is haunted,
And every rood in the hemlock wood
I know is ground enchanted.
[In the long sunny afternoon
The plain was full of ghosts:
I wandered up,
I wandered down,
Beset by pensive hosts.
For in those lonely grounds the sun
Shines not as on the town,
In nearer arcs his journeys run,
And nearer stoops the moon.
There in a moment I have seen
The buried Past arise;
The fields of Thessaly grew green,
Old gods forsook the skies.
Happy Reading!](https://robbinshouse.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)