Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum

06/09/2026

Join us this Wednesday at 6:30 for The Wholesale Klezmer Band in concert, presenting “Jewish Life in Song,” including a mix of Yiddish songs of tradition and social justice, Ashkenazic Jewish prayer melodies, and instrumental music to meditate and dance to.

Check out the 2026 Wednesday Folk Traditions line up!

The Wholesale Klezmer Band, a New England treasure, will present “Jewish Life in Song,” including a mix of Yiddish songs of tradition and social justice, Ashkenazic Jewish prayer melodies, and instrumental music to meditate and dance to. “Music to bridge the gulf of war.” -Amherst Bulletin

06/08/2026

We'd like to introduce our 2026 Interns here at PPH, starting with Arielle!
Hi, I'm Arielle! I am a rising senior at Bennington College studying Art History, Visual Art, and Chemistry. I chose to intern at PPH this summer because the museum is near where I grew up in Shutesbury, and I appreciate PPH’s dedication to telling the stories of the Indigenous and enslaved individuals involved in the site’s history. As I intend to pursue painting conservation, I am particularly excited to work with the museum’s portrait collection and assist with collections-care efforts.

06/06/2026

“Vivacious and curley haired” Susan Davis Phelps was the youngest of nine children who lived at Phelps Farm, the daughter of (Moses) Charles Porter Phelps and his second wife Charlotte. She grew up just across the road from her Huntington relatives at Forty Acres and was well-acquainted with society in Amherst, where she may have attended school as a child and where she formed close friendships in her adulthood. Susan is known for the most romantic, quintessentially Victorian New England details of her life – that she died in her thirties of “a broken heart” after her former fiancé married another woman and because she was a friend of Emily Dickinson.

Learn more about Susan Phelps and Emily Dickinson on our website! https://www.pphmuseum.org/susanphelps

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum is open Saturday through Wednesday from 1-4 pm for tours .

 “Vivacious and curley haired”[1] Susan Davis Phelps was the youngest of nine children who lived at Phelps Farm, the daughter of (Moses) Charles Porter Phelps and his second wife Charlotte. Susan grew up just across the road from her Huntington relatives at Forty Acres and was well-acquainted w...

05/30/2026

Running from the ground, up along the north facade and perched on top the gambrel roof is a lightning rod, said to be added during the house's 1799 renovation by Charles Phelps. In the 1920s, engineers coming to the house from the Underwriters Laboratory of Chicago were profoundly impressed by it and stated it must be one of the first true Franklin Rods. They dated it back as early as 1800 or before.

Learn more about this interesting piece of technology and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

https://www.pphmuseum.org/blogging-through-the-museum/2017/9/27/franklin-lightning-rod

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours Saturdays through Wednesdays from 1 - 4 pm.

Running from the ground, up along the north facade and perched on top the gambrel roof is a lightning rod, said to be added during the house's 1799 renovation by Charles Phelps. In the 1920s, engineers coming to the house from the Underwriters Laboratory of Chicago were profoundly impressed by it an

05/23/2026

From the mid 18th to the mid 19th century, one of the most distinctive milestones in a girl’s education was the creation of a needlework sampler. A sampler - defined as a piece of needlework with various stitches- was part of the learning process for young girls to attain skills in sewing. The sampler piece above was created in 1814 by Bethia Huntington at just eight years old and serves as an excellent example to these preliminary works completed at a young age.

Learn more about samples and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!
https://www.pphmuseum.org/blogging-through-the-museum/2021/8/5/needlework

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours Saturday through Wednesday from 1 to 4 pm.

From the mid 18th to the mid 19th century, one of the most distinctive milestones in a girl’s education was the creation of a needlework sampler. A sampler - defined as a piece of needlework with various stitches- was part of the learning process for young girls to attain skills in sewing. A young...

05/17/2026

Emily Whitted, curator of the new exhibit American Girlhood at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, shares what makes "mends", and textile work, so meaningful.
The exhibit includes needlework from the PPH Collections: an unfinished coat of arms worked by Elizabeth Porter Phelps!

For doctoral researcher Emily Whitted, repaired textiles are more than signs of wear. They are records of labor and ingenuity that connect museum collections to the lived experiences of early Americans.

05/13/2026

In the late 18th and early 19th century America, Chinese porcelain was an extremely popular import. Distinctive blue and white table items, known as “Canton ware”, were seen as minor status symbols and could be found in upper and middle class households throughout New England. Nearly all porcelain imported from China was manufactured in the city of Guangzhou, the only Chinese port open to foreign trade during the period.

This particular set of china was donated to the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House in 2016 by David M.G. Huntington, the nephew of the museum's founder, Dr. James Lincoln Huntington. It was originally amassed over the course of the 19th century by the family of Dr. Huntington’s grandmother (known as the Stearns) some time before 1820.

Learn more about this beautiful import an other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

In the late 18th and early 19th century America, Chinese porcelain was an extremely popular import. Distinctive blue and white table items, known as “Canton ware”, were seen as minor status symbols and could be found in upper and middle class households throughout New England. Nearly all porcela...

05/06/2026

Captain Simon Fitch of Lebanon, CT, married Dan Huntington’s sister, Wealthy Huntington. Presumably through this connection Fitch came to paint the wedding portraits of his brother-in-law Dan and new bride Elizabeth Whiting Phelps sometime around 1801, when the two were married. The portraits of Dan and Elizabeth Huntington, the third generation, are the earliest known likenesses of residents of Forty Acres.

Learn more about this set of portraits and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

https://www.pphmuseum.org/simon-fitch-portraits

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum will open for tours May 2026.