Gardens at the Museum

Gardens at the Museum

by | Apr 10, 2023 | Blog

April is National Garden Month, and soon our friends in the Garden Club of Amherst will be tending the Museum’s flower gardens, just to the east of the Museum. Already the east lawn is a mass of color from the blue scilla growing wild there.

In 2015 the Historical Society helped the Garden Club celebrate their one hundredth anniversary, as Elaine Barker and Patricia Holland gave a talk about the history of the Garden Club; you may view the video of the talk here.

In her talk, Ms Holland mentions a 1950′s-era film about growing tobacco in the Connecticut Valley; Tobacco Valley. Some of us still remember the fields of Hadley and Hatfield when they were covered with tobacco netting; a video of the film is available for viewing here.

And next Friday, April 14, Jane Wald will give a talk on the history and development of the Dickinson Museum. The talk will be at noon over Zoom; here is the link.

Gardens in Amherst

Gardens in Amherst

by | Apr 17, 2022 | Blog

April is, appropriately, National Garden Month. The year 2015 was the centennial of the founding of the Garden Club of Amherst, and Ms Patricia Holland gave us an entertaining and informative lecture on its history; you may view the lecture here – she notes that when the Garden Club was founded Amherst already had three village improvement societies. As part of her history, she mentions that at a 1947 meeting they viewed a film on tobacco farming in the Connecticut valley – Tobacco Valley – and in 1959 the Garden Club published a book, The Trees of Amherst.

And the Amherst History Museum can always use help with its gardens! If you want to do a little weeding and gardening around the Museum, send us a note at info@amhersthistory.org.
Next week, our History Bites will host a presentation by Carol Letson and Becky Holmes on the history of the Mount Toby Friends Meeting. The presentation will be at noon on Friday, April 22, in the Woodbury Room of the Jones Library.
Our Blooming Garden

Our Blooming Garden

by | May 27, 2021 | Blog

Dear Friends,

The Amherst History Museum garden is now in fragrant bloom, thanks to the attention of our friends in the Garden Club of Amherst, and our own Society volunteers. The lilacs and honeysuckle are fading, but the iris and poppies in the long beds are in bloom, as are the smaller beds of herbs and flowers.

Our intrepid volunteer gardeners–Becky Sheridan and her husband Hal–have been hard at work pruning trees and bushes, weeding the lilacs and other flower beds, and mulching the herb garden. Come and see!

George Naughton