Throughout our lives, we wear hats to mark monumental moments, protect us from the weather, and send messages to the world. Adorning the heads of everyday people and heroes alike, the hats of the Old Colony tell the tales of those who once wore them. View highlights from a collection spanning four centuries and discover the utility, practicality, and all-out fashion statements of HATS, a special exhibit open April 19 through August 31.

Join us for these special “Discover Mount Auburn” tours to explore the Cemetery through the lens of the Civil War. We will share the stories of those buried here with connections to the war, visit the haunting monuments of those who sacrificed their lives on the front lines, and learn about how the war even shaped the history of Mount Auburn.

Come and learn about Agawam's first residents. View displays, simulations and actual artifacts found in and around Agawam.

Mount Auburn, designated a National Historic Landmark, is one of the country’s most significant designed landscapes. Here the arts of horticulture, architecture and sculpture combine with the beauty of nature to create a place of comfort and inspiration. This 1.5-mile walking tour will focus on stories of history, monuments, and the lives of those buried here.

This highly interactive workshop will allow participants to interact with Ray Raphael, a leading historian of our nation’s birth, and explore a variety of historic images, newspapers, books, maps, and/or manuscripts from the AAS collections.rnrnParticipants will have an opportunity to study the broadsides, pamphlets and newspapers that fought the American Revolution with words.

Meet some of the celebrated figures from Boston’s past whom today we would call “gay” and “lesbian,” on a walk led by Volunteer Docent and historian Robin Hazard Ray. Actress Charlotte Cushman, dramatist Thomas Russel Sullivan, sculptor Anne Whitney, and American Field Service founder Henry B. Sleeper are just a few of the remarkable individuals we will visit in recognition of Boston Pride Week 2013.

Join us for a thought-provoking day examining myth in Massachusetts history. Ray Raphael, author of the forth-coming "Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get it Right", a companion volume to the earlier "Founding Myths: Stories that Hide our Patriotic Past," will explore "Why Myths Persist" in his keynote address. In sessions and round tables such as Massachusetts History beyond the Tea Party; Reinterpretation 101; Redefining Freedom on the Trail, and "It Never Happened Here" we will examine and present organizations, programs and projects that have successfully harnessed myths, expanded their narratives, and redefined their mission without losing their identity. In practical sessions/workshops we will explore "teaching the problem," and how to use this model for programming purposes in exciting ways that successfully challenge audiences.

Just as the rich and famous were buried at Mount Auburn, so were the “not so rich and famous” -the butchers, bakers, candlestick makers – or in our case, the cigar makers, furriers, midwives, miners, fishermen, clothiers, hatters, and horse carriage conductors. Join Volunteer Docents Carol Harper and Ginny Brady as we investigate the post-Industrial Revolution era and celebrate the lives of the immigrants and others who worked and raised families while building the economies of Boston and Cambridge.

The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, the “High Water Mark of the Rebellion,” was the Civil War’s biggest and bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties, or nearly one third of the 157,000 troops engaged there. More than 5,800 men from Massachusetts served at Gettysburg and played key roles in bringing about the Union victory that turned the tide of the War. Please join Volunteer Docents Carol Harper and Steve Pinkerton at Story Chapel on the sesquicentennial eve of the first day of fighting for a brief overview of the three-day battle, followed by a walking tribute to Mount Auburn’s Gettysburg veterans and a reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at the monument to “the other speaker,” Edward Everett.

The Florida Humanities Council invites K- 12 educators from across the U.S. to explore the impact of Eatonville, Florida on the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Writer, folklorist, anthropologist, and arguably the most significant collector and interpreter of Southern African-American culture, Hurston spent her childhood in Eatonville, the oldest incorporated black municipality in America. This week-long workshop will be led by distinguished historians, folklorists, and literature scholars. Participants will stay at Rollins College, located in Winter Park near Eatonville and Orlando. Application deadline is March 04, 2013.

The Florida Humanities Council invites K- 12 educators from across the U.S. to explore the impact of Eatonville, Florida on the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Writer, folklorist, anthropologist, and arguably the most significant collector and interpreter of Southern African-American culture, Hurston spent her childhood in Eatonville, the oldest incorporated black municipality in America. This week-long workshop will be led by distinguished historians, folklorists, and literature scholars. Participants will stay at Rollins College, located in Winter Park near Eatonville and Orlando. Application deadline is March 04, 2013.

Hancock Shaker Village will exhibit the work of Noel Vincentini, a photographer who, in 1935 was hired as part of the WPA’s Federal Art Project. Vincentini’s task was to photograph the Shaker villages in upstate NY and Western Massachusetts for the newly formed Index of American Design. The result was over 200 photographs showcasing Shaker material culture. The cataloging of this little known religious community for posterity was certainly on Vincentini’s mind, but simultaneously the images are capable of standing alone as worthy artistic expression; they exist on the threshold of object and art, at once a record of material culture and a collection of art in their own right. This exhibit explores the series of photos in both manifestations.

An outdoor installation of large-scale photographs by ten young Brockton photographers. Funded in part by Mass Humanities.

This exhibition highlights the places where Americans read books, newspapers, and other printed materials: in the kitchen, the tavern, the bedroom, the schoolroom, and many other locations. It features books and images from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester and is co-sponsored by the Smith College Mortimer Rare Book Room. An opening reception will be held in the Book Arts Gallery at Smith on Thursday, February 28 from 4-6 PM