Things to See & Do

The Concord Museum, in partnership with Lexington History Museums, presents an engaging program highlighting new research and evolving interpretations from the communities at the center of the start of the American Revolution. This conversation brings together Curator David F. Wood, whose work, Eyewitness to Revolution, draws from the Concord Museum’s renowned collection; Paul O’Shaughnessy, President of Lexington History Museums, whose institution recently published Revolutionary Stories; and historian and archaeologist Joel Bohy.

An Evening of Music, Craft, and Cultural Tradition.  Experience a unique night that brings together two extraordinary artistic voices: Puerto Rican cuatro player and composer Fabiola Méndez and master luthier William Cumpiano. Enjoy a live performance from Fabiola alongside an intimate fireside conversation with William on instrument building, cultural heritage, and the evolving story of the cuatro.

Visitors can enjoy free admission to the Concord Museum on the Fourth of July and enjoy special family activities and food trucks. Hear a gallery talk on with Museum staff on the Revolution and its legacy at 12pm. Visitors will: - Enjoy free admission to see the original Paul Revere lantern and dozens of objects that witnessed the founding of our nation, - Explore the new special exhibition, Revolutionary Legacies, - Listen in on a gallery talk with museum staff, - Join fun family activities and enjoy food trucks.

Goodwin will be performing their third studio release: “Then Rain, Then Wind.” Collaborating with poets across time and space, this album brings aged yet ever salient words to a new generation. Setting the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Rabindranath Tagore, Charles Baudelaire, Langston Hughes, and Li Qinghzhao to music,

Tour the heart of the Concord Museum’s collection of objects used and made by Henry David Thoreau in the galleries, which display more Thoreau objects than have previously been on permanent display, and learn about his life in Concord and two years at Walden Pond. Free with Museum admission. Members visit free.

Henry David Thoreau is known for the two years he spent living at Walden Pond.  Did you know that he lived in other homes in Concord throughout his life?  Take a tour of the domestic side of Thoreau’s wholly human life, visiting the homes where he lived and hearing the stories told of him by family and friends. $15 Members | $25 Non-Members. Includes same-day admission to the Concord Museum.

Celebrate the Museum’s special exhibition, Revolutionary Legacies, with a special guided tour following a festive happy hour of wine, beer, and light refreshments in the Museum’s courtyard. Reflect on the nation’s founding principles, their continuous reinterpretation over the past 250 years, and consider what they mean today through textiles, ceramics, and relics from the 19th century. Your ticket includes drinks outside in the courtyard before the tour, which begins at 7:15 pm. $15 Members | $25 Non-Members

Join us for a presentation on Brian Donahue’s latest book, "Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests."

About the presentation: Can we reconnect housing to sustainably managed local and regional forests? Through the colonial period, houses were mostly constructed and heated directly from local woodlands—Walden Woods was a notable example.

As the country celebrates its 250th Anniversary, enjoy a staged reading and discussion of the new play, "Walt Whitman’s American Dream" by Sarah Vander Schaaff, directed by Brendon Fox, Artistic Director of the renowned Peterborough Players. A juicy biopic, the play stirs the bigger questions still at the heart of our experience; the ensemble of characters includes Concord’s own, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Tour Old Hill Burial Ground and learn about the Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Concord’s oldest cemetery. Visit the final resting place of some of the most well-known figures from April 19, 1775, including Emerson Cogswell, Colonel Barrett, and Captain David Brown. This tour includes about 1 mile of walking on hilly, unpaved terrain. $15 Members | $25 Non-Members. Includes same-day admission to the Concord Museum.