About
Concord Museum Collections
The Collections of the Concord Museum support our mission to connect people to Concord’s multi-faceted history and its continuing influence on American cultural, political, environmental, and literary life. The Museum's collection was begun in the 1850s by Cummings Davis (1816-1896) who collected local domestic objects from the 17th and 18th centuries, objects associated with April 19, 1775, and objects associated with Henry David Thoreau. The Concord Antiquarian Society was formed in 1886 in acknowledgment of the collection’s value in interpreting Concord’s history. Today, the collection numbers approximately 45,000 objects spanning the Indigenous history in the region (starting around 12,000 years ago) to the history of the town of Concord (starting in the seventeenth century) and includes archaeological items, furniture, timepieces, photographs, documents, prints and drawings, paintings, historic clothing, domestic textiles, ceramics, silver, and household goods.
The Concord Museum recognizes that some objects in the collection may be culturally sensitive. As part of our on-going commitment to the ethical management of culturally sensitive objects in its collections, the Concord Museum endeavors to work with the appropriate communities to display such materials in a respectful, culturally relevant manner or to refrain from display where appropriate. We are committed to consulting and collaborating with Native nations and Indigenous communities in the stewardship, interpretation, and access to these the Indigenous collections.
Records in our collection may contain outdated, offensive, or incorrect and culturally offensive language or culturally sensitive records from previous collecting practices that do not reflect the current views of the Concord Museum. Some culturally sensitive records and images may not be publicly accessible. We regularly update our collections records and encourage and welcome members of descendant communities, scholars, and others to contact us at research@concordmuseum.org with feedback, questions, or concerns.
Researching the Collections
The Concord Museum welcomes research inquiries about objects in our collections. Our publicly accessible online collections database allows visitors to search and learn more about our collections. Collections are available to researchers for scholarly use by appointment only.
Please email research@concordmuseum.org with questions about research, image reproductions and permissions, or to schedule an appointment.
Images and Reproductions Requests
If you are interested in images of our collection for use in publications, research, or other uses, please contact us at research@concordmuseum.org Please include the following information, along with your name and address, in your email: Image(s) requested, Title of Publication, Film, or Website, Author, Editor, Date of Publication.
Donating an Item to the Concord Museum
Since its founding in 1886, the Concord Museum has collected, preserved, and interpreted items made, used, or owned in the historically defined area known as Concord. We continue to build our collections and actively collect items that relate the our mission of connecting people to Concord’s multi-faceted history and its continuing influence on American cultural, political, environmental, and literary life. If you are interested in donating an item to the Concord Museum, please send images of the item(s) along with the reason for it's significance and any associated ownership history to research@concordmuseum.org. We do not accept drop-off donations, please schedule an appointment if you wish to bring a potential item for donation to the Museum.
There are a few ways to browse the Online Collection:
On the homepage, you can browse curated selections from our collection.
On the people page, you can browse individuals and/or institutions related to objects in the collection, along with relevant biographies and objects.
On the Favorites page, you can browse user-created collections. You can add your own Favorites to Community Favorites by registering on the site and creating sets that are marked "public".
Enter keywords or names in the search box (Quick Search) to find objects or other records in our collection. To search on specific criteria, you can use the advanced search to search within certain data fields. You can search using multiple criteria, such as the term "portrait" in the title + a date range of "1800-1900". If you are not getting any results with advanced search, try broadening your search by removing criteria.
- You can use an * (asterisk) as a wildcard in searches, to match partial terms (e.g. draw* will return results for draw, drawn, drawings, etc.)
- Use quotation marks to get more exact results - e.g. John Doe will return any results with John or Doe, but "John Doe" will return results with this exact phrase.
There are different types of search results, such as object records and people records. When there is more than one type of result, you can choose different types of records to view.
You can refine a result set by using filters to narrow down results. For example, you can filter to see only works that have images within any result set. You can also clear each filter to revert to a larger result set, or clear all filters to get to your original result set.
An image may be shown as not available if it is not yet available in our database, or if it cannot be displayed for copyright reasons.
Favorites allows you to create your own sets from the collection objects available on this site. You can share your Favorites with others, or create sets of artworks for your own viewing (Favorites are private by default).
You can optionally add a description for each Favorites set. You can view your collection sets by going to the "Favorites" page and logging into your account.
To use Favorites, you must first register an account. Once you have completed registration, you can start creating Favorites sets and adding artworks to them.
You can add artworks to your sets by clicking on the heart symbol while viewing objects, and selecting which set to add the artwork(s). After selection, you can choose to add all selected works on the page to a Favorite. You can also add the entire result set or all objects on a page.
If you mark your Favorites set public, this Favorite will be visible to others in the Community Favorites section. The option to mark a set as public is available when you edit your Favorite.
After setting a Favorite set as public, you can also share the link to allow others to view your set.