Sign Up for a Space on our Next Guided Walking Tour
Soujourner Truth Memorial Statue- at the corner of Park and Pine 121 Pine St, Florence, MA, United StatesA great way to learn our history is to take an in-person, guided walking tour around the village. Tours start on Sunday mornings at 10:00 at the Sojourner Truth Statue. We walk a little over a mile and return to the statue before noon. We visit up to ten sites connected to the dedicated abolitionists [...]
Annual Halloween Graveyard Tour of the Park Street Cemetery
Park Street Cemetery Park Street, Florence, MA, United StatesHosted by Steve Strimer. We thought better of having the tour last year but we're happy to do it this year, vaccinated and masked up, rain or shine. We celebrate the newly restored gravestones of African Americans Basil Dorsey and his daughter Louisa, his wife Cynthia's mother Nancy Jones, George Hodestia, and Martha Knowles Washington. [...]
38th annual MLK Day 2022 Celebration w/the Resistance Center for Peace and Justice
This event is now virtual for this year. Please register at https://www.theresistancecenter.org/mlkday/
“Under the Pines” Walking Tour in Collaboration with Bombyx Center for the Arts
Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity 130 Pine St, Florence, MA, United StatesIn honor of Black History Month, and as part of Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity program "Under the Pines, a Celebration of the Black Experience," the David Ruggles Center will lead a walking tour that explores the rich activist history of Florence. The guided tour will be part of an afternoon of programming curated [...]
Sojourner Truth: A Voice for Justice – Online Presentation by Tom Goldscheider for Palmer Public Library
ZoomJoin Palmer Public Library for this online presentation about the life of Sojourner Truth, who was the most famous African-American woman of her generation. She was a gifted orator who spoke across the country on behalf of her enslaved brethren and for women's rights. She also "found her voice" as a political speaker living in [...]
Make a Reservation to Join a Walking Tour, Sundays @10AM
A great way to learn our history is to take an in-person, guided walking tour around the village. Tours start on Sunday mornings at 10:00 at the Sojourner Truth Statue. We walk a little over a mile and return to the statue before noon. We visit up to ten sites connected to the dedicated abolitionists [...]
Founders Day Walking Tour “Utopia Takes Shape in Broughton’s Meadow: Northampton Association Sites and Stories”
Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue 121 Pine St, Florence, Massachusetts, United StatesFounders Day 2022 Walking Tour: Utopia Takes Shape in Broughton’s Meadow: Northampton Association Sites and Stories Join DRC historian Steve Strimer on a walking tour to learn the history of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a radical abolitionist utopian community established in Florence on April 8, 1842. Based on principles of racial, economic, [...]
David Ruggles Center’s Annual Founders Day Symposium, “Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley: Discovery to Documentation,” with Keynote Speaker, Dr. Ousmane Power-Greene (on ZOOM)
The David Ruggles Center for History and Education is proud to present its annual Founders Day Symposium. The NAEI was founded in Florence on April 8, 1842. A radical abolitionist utopian community, the NAEI attracted both David Ruggles and Sojourner Truth to join. The David Ruggles Center for History and Education was created on this [...]
Lecture by Christopher Clark: “To Live in the Common Cause: Activism and Community at the Northampton Association” (on ZOOM)
The David Ruggles Center along with co-sponsors Northampton Neighbors and Historic Northampton is proud to present a lecture by historian Christopher Clark entitled, "To Live in the Common Cause: Activism and Community at the Northampton Association." In April 1842 (180 years ago) a group of radical abolitionists formed the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, [...]
Our Museum is Open Sundays, 12-4, and By Appointment
The David Ruggles Center for History and Education is open for visitors Sundays 12-4 from June 5- September 25. Current exhibits include: ~David Ruggles: At the Vanguard of Liberty ~“The Spirit Calls Me There”: Sojourner Truth in Florence, 1844-1857 ~Lydia Maria Child, Abolitionist ~People, Places, and Paper: The Underground Railroad in Northampton and Florence Visitors [...]