Museum Open May-October, Sundays 12 to 4 or by appointment

Museum

May 2025

DRC Museum Open: Sundays 12-4, May-October

By |2025-05-03T10:25:59-04:00May 3rd, 2025|

May 4, 2025

@ 12:00 pm

–

October 30, 2025

@ 4:00 pm

 

The DRC is open Sunday afternoons, 12-4. Come learn about the courageous individuals in 1840s and 1850s Florence who challenged slavery and prejudice, and sought to build a community based on principles of race, gender, class and religious equality. Exhibits tells the stories of famous abolitionist icons who lived in Florence like Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles, and ordinary heroes like Basil Dorsey who escaped slavery and built a new life in freedom here while continuing to engage in antislavery work.

 

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 are also invited to peruse the DRC’s extensive library or make an appointment for the archive. 

 

 Museum tours are also availably by appointment. For inquiries of all types, please email info@davidrugglescenter.org.

 

 

 

David Ruggles Center

225 Nonotuck St.


Florence,

MA

01062

United States

+ Google Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 2025

MLK Day: Museum Open in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By |2025-01-12T00:03:13-05:00January 9th, 2025|

January 20, 2025 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the museum at the David Ruggles Center will be open Monday, January 20, 12-4 PM. Visitors can learn about Black Americans, many formerly enslaved, who lived in Florence and Northampton in the 1840s and 1850s and fought against the institution of slavery and racial injustice. This history highlights not only antislavery icons like Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles, but also the lives of ordinary local heroes like Basil Dorsey and Stephen Rush who had escaped enslavement and continued the quest for equality in Florence. Through these stories, visitors can learn about and reflect upon the Underground Railroad, Frederick Douglass, as well as Florence’s 1840s abolitionist utopian community, William Lloyd Garrison, and the 19th century quest to end slavery and racial injustice in the USA, a century before the 20th Century Civil Rights Movement emerged. Docents will be on hand. Refreshments will be provided. All are welcome!

David Ruggles Center

225 Nonotuck St.
Florence, MA 01062 United States + Google Map
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