John Hannigan and the Massachusetts Archives
As soon as restoration of the Robbins House was complete, our nonprofit group turned its attention to the families of…
Freedom’s Way Hidden Treasures Program— Patriots, Prejudice, and Protest: The Hidden Stories of Concord’s Early African Americans
At The Robbins House
Sat. May 19 • 2:45–4:00 PM
Our next stop, with time to travel, is the Robbins House, where Peter Robbins’ niece Ellen Garrison talks about being raised in 1820-30s Concord, and the antislavery activism that brought her from Boston to Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, Kansas, and California in pursuit of independence at a time of racial injustice.
Conversations in a Civil Society: Agreeing to Disagree
Tuesday, April 3, 2018 • 7–9 PM • Panel Discussion at Concord Carlisle High School • Sponsored by Concord Carlisle Adult and Community Education
Come join this discussion on how to navigate our differences: politics, religion, values, life style. How do we learn to have conversations around issues that sometimes divide us? How do we learn to listen better, discuss, and even bridge that divide?
Making history come alive in Concord
If Ellen Garrison were alive today, she would have been thrilled to see the eager young faces gathered in the Robbins House to not only learn about Concord’s African-American history, but also to hear about the important role Garrison played in advocating for civil rights in the 1800s.
The Role Of Museums In Unmasking Society’s Inequities
Reposted from HuffPost By Maria Madison, ScD Whether through a painting, artifact or object, thoughtful museums and historic sites share…
New York Times Article Draws Visitors to Robbins House
September 23 • By Kaitlyn Greenidge • New York Times Sunday Review
A recent New York Times article, “‘Sisterhood’ Felt Meaningless. So My Sisters and I Got in the Car.” details the road trip taken by three sisters to women’s history sites in search of feminism in our current political climate – ending with the story of Ellen Garrison at the Robbins House.
Robbins House Outdoor Exhibit Feedback
Installed July 2017
The Robbins House recently installed a timeline of the long Civil Rights movement listing local, state and national events. We invite visitors to let us know what current events they’d add, since our timeline ends in 2017 but will stand in front of the Robbins House for years to come. Much has happened just in the few months since the outdoor exhibit was installed. Here is a response we just received:
Boston is Thoreau Country: A Multimedia Series Celebrating Thoreau’s Legacy in the Hub
Two hundred years after Henry David Thoreau’s birth, a distinguished panel considered Thoreau’s lessons for today’s environmental policy, civil disobedience, and our relationships with the natural world. Laura Dassow Walls highlighted the event with her new biography, Henry David Thoreau: A Life.
Robbins House Summer Intern Returns to Tufts
September 2017
Emma Hodgdon, who has interned for The Robbins House for two summers now, returns to her junior year as an English major at Tufts University next week.
![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)