Great Barrington Historical Society offering ‘An Old-Fashioned Christmas’
Great Barrington — Beginning Friday, Nov. 27, the Great Barrington Historical Society will host exhibit of “An Old-Fashioned Christmas” at its Wheeler Farmstead Museum.
Th annual event traces the history of the Christmas holiday and its traditions from the Colonial period to the Victorian era and on to the 1950s and modern Christmas. The exhibit also features a room-sized Christmas Village display and gift shop area featuring holiday peppermint pigs, sugarplums, edible coal and pickle ornaments.
The exhibit is free and open to the public, and will run through December. The museum is a GB S.A.F.E.-designated, contact-free environment. Masks and hand sanitizing is required and social distancing and number limits are observed. For more information, contact the Great Barrington Historical Society at (413) 591-8702 or info@gbhistory.org.
–E.E.
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Hancock Shaker Village to hold ‘Thanksgiving on the Farm’
Pittsfield — Hancock Shaker Village will welcome visitors to “Thanksgiving on the Farm” Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Planned with safety precautions in mind, the two-day opening invites participants to walk at their leisure on the paths through the Village, greet the farm animals in the Round Stone Barn, watch blacksmithing demos, listen to Shaker talks, and see the exhibition “Notes About Home: 60 Years at Hancock Shaker Village.” Several historic buildings will be also open for exploration. Hiking options include the Farm and Forest Trail and the Shaker Mountain Trail. Shaker Mercantile will be open for holiday shopping with artisan-made objects such as local maple syrup and jams, handcrafted jewelry, cookbooks, clothing, luxury bath products, toys, and fresh wreaths made by Township Four. A ‘Foraged Holiday Swag’ workshop will take place Saturday, Nov. 28, at 1 p.m. with head gardener Lauren Piotrowski.
Admission is $20 for adults, $8 for youth ages 13–17, and free for kids ages 12 and under. Masks are required, and physical distancing guidelines will be in place. For more information, contact Hancock Shaker Village at (413) 443-0188 or info@hancockshakervillage.org.
–E.E.
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Berkshire Bounty preparing for monthly food drive
Great Barrington — Berkshire Bounty is preparing for its monthly mobile food drive, which will be held Tuesday, Dec. 1, and for which Berkshire Bounty will collect canned and/or packaged goods to be delivered to the People’s Pantry as well as the South Congregational Church in Pittsfield in order to help the growing population of food insecure people in Berkshire County.
During the drives, Berkshire Bounty volunteers visit donors’ homes to pick up packaged food donations at their doorsteps. Food donors may also drop their food donation at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire or at the People’s Pantry. Foods most in demand are hearty soups, tomato sauce and cereal. Those who are donating from their own pantries are asked to be mindful of expiration dates. Anyone who would like to participate by donating canned and/or packaged food or by volunteering as a driver is asked to contact Berkshire Bounty at info@berkshire-bounty.org and include their street address, email address and best contact telephone number. Further instructions will be provided to those who volunteer.
–E.E.
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Small press releases two new Berkshire histories
Great Barrington — Author and Edge contributor Bernard A. Drew has kept busy in the months leading up to and encompassing the COVID-19 pandemic: He completed and published two new local history books through his very small Attic Revivals Press.
“The Past Unmasked” began as a winter research challenge: Could Drew identify all the places in Great Barrington that poet and William Cullen Bryant lived in between 1816 and 1825? With the arrival of virus restrictions, Drew set about a second project: identifying some 85 newspaper cartoonists and comic book artists with links to the Berkshires. There are also profiles of the first licensed woman pilot in the county, the first certified woman lawyer and the most successful woman ski jumper as well as the stories of a turn-of-the-previous-century Black fiddle player, two Mohican members of Rogers’ Rangers, a Scots landscaper, a daredevil Gee-Bee pilot and nine veteran mapmakers.
In the spring, Drew also completed a history of Notch View Farm in Windsor, home of Helen G. and Arthur D. Budd, and currently the Trustees of Reservations’ Notchview. “The Colonel on Skis” traces the origin of the property as a summer retreat, and looks at the several farmsteads and earlier summer estates that have been folded into Notchview over the years. Drew grew up on Notch View Farm, where his father was outdoor foreman and, when the 3,000-acre property became a Reservation, its first superintendent. Drew has accumulated anecdotes for decades, probed newspaper and other files, tapped A.D. Budd’s papers and corresponded with the mayor of a small town in France — Tannay — that U.S. Army Lt. Col. Budd and his troops liberated from the Germans in 1918.
Copies of these books may be found through local independent book vendors or ordered from the author, 24 Gilmore Ave., Great Barrington, MA 01230, adding $2.50 per copy to cover postage and handling.
–E.E.
