We are open Tuesday - Sunday for tours at 10:00, 11:00, and 12:00. More info on our "Visit" page! The Nichols House Museum welcomes visitors year-round.
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In 1885, Dr. Arthur Nichols and his wife Elizabeth purchased an 1804 townhouse attributed to architect Charles Bulfinch. The house was where their three daughters matured into designers, writers, and social activists. In 1930, Rose Standish Nichols (1872-1960) inherited the property and began laying the plans for its establishment as a museum. Soon after her death in 1960, the Nichols House Museum
opened to the public. Today, the Museum engages with the social concerns of those who lived and worked in the house. The Nichols House Museum maintains and preserves an original collection that reflects the Nichols family's cultural values and changing tastes across two generations. Highlights include sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Flemish tapestries, Japanese woodblock prints, and Boston furniture. Visitors also encounter day-to-day objects including an 1897 dumbwaiter and a 1936 radio. It provides an active schedule of lectures, programs, and special events for its members and the surrounding Boston community. The Nichols House Museum offers engaging tours and public programming for all ages. Groups that visit include students from nearby colleges and universities, adult learners, and youth. Visit and join the conversation.
There are still a few spots available for our Halloween tours on Thursday, October 26!
How did young girls in the 1880s try to divine their future? Which Nichols family member was accused of being a witch? Who were the famous soothsayers of Beacon Hill? Learn the answers to these mysteries and more, as we traverse three floors of the Nichols House after dark.
Follow the "Visit" link in our bio for tickets. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
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We'll be sharing few special textiles not usually on view during our Craftswoman and Collector tour this Saturday, October 21.
One of those items is this wool and cotton needlepoint fire screen, embroidered by Rose around 1945 when she about 73. She created this piece to be used as a "summer screen," placed in front of a hearth in warmer months when the fireplace was not being used.
Don't miss this rare chance to view fragile textiles like the fire screen— and to learn more about Rose Nichols as a textile artist and collector. Join us for Craftswoman and Collector at 1:00 on Saturday.
Follow the "Visit" link in our bio for tickets. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
The Halloween spirit has descended upon Beacon Hill. We've started to notice some creepy new friends appearing in the neighborhood.
On Halloween, we'll be welcoming our smallest neighbors for trick-or-treating from 4:00 to 5:30. 🎃👻🕷️
We take our textiles very seriously here at the Nichols House Museum, and sometimes, when we inspect them closely, the details make us smile.
We’re sweet on samplers right now at the Nichols House Museum! The one you see here was made by embroidery enthusiast and former lady of the house Rose Standish Nichols.
Already an accomplished embroiderer by the time she made this sampler at age 39, Rose based her design on an 1842 Spanish sampler made by Rosalia Escolar (now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Scrupulous about giving credit where it was due, Rose signed her piece, “RSN after Rosalia Escolar Ano de 1842 - 1911.” Like Rosalia, she left out the letters U, W, and X from the alphabet.
This sampler, on display in the bedroom once occupied by Rose’s parents, Elizabeth and Arthur Nichols, complements several others featured in our special exhibition, “Embroidered Education.” You can also learn more about Rose's needlework on our upcoming textile-focused tour, "Craftswoman and Collector." For more information follow the Programs & Events link in our bio. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/programs-and-events/) 🧵🪡
Visit the museum after dark! Get in the spooky spirit with a twilight tour of the Nichols House. Led by a costumed guide, explore eerie happenings on Beacon Hill, witchy Nichols family connections, and more.
Tours at 5:30 and 7:00 pm on Thursday, October 26.
Follow the "Visit" link in our bio for tickets. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
This stunning 19th-century Chinese needlework box belonged to Rose Nichols.
Throughout the 1800s, sumptuously ornamented needlework boxes such as this one were crafted in China for the European and American export markets. Rose was an accomplished textile embroiderer and a collector of East Asian decorative objects. This lacquered and gilded box, with many compartments containing finely carved sewing implements, must have served not only as a treasured helpmate during her many projects over the years, but also as a daily delight to the senses.
Learn more about Rose's work as a fiber artists and textile collector on our Craftswoman and Collector tours on October 17 and 21.
Follow the "Programs & Events" link in our bio for more information. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit) 🪡
🪚📐At the turn of the 20th century, Margaret Nichols studied woodworking at MIT.
At the time, MIT was based in Boston’s Back Bay. Margaret's woodworking class met in MIT’s workshop complex at the foot of Garrison Street. Margaret remembered “a barren one-story affair housing the woodworking and the pattern making shop and the forge. It was located near the railroad tracks back of St. Botolph Street.”
Inside was a well-equipped woodworking shop. According to a MIT publication, “The carpentry, wood-turning, and pattern-making departments contain forty carpenter’s benches, two circular saw benches, a swing saw, two jig saws, a buzz-planer, a mortising-machine, thirty-six wood lathes, a large pattern-maker’s lathe, and thirty-six pattern maker’s benches.”
With her classmates (all men), Margaret created a scale model of a corner beam for a frame house, learned dovetailing, and used a machine lathe to turn out cups and bowls.
Learn more about Margaret's MIT experience— and the experiences of other Tech women over the past 150 years— in a free program, “Skirts and Slide Rules: Women at MIT from the Nichols Sisters to Now,” next Thursday, September 28 at 5:30 pm at The Nexus in MIT’s Hayden Library.
Follow the "Programs & Events" link in our bio for tickets. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
1895 Bromley Atlas of the City of Boston from the collection of the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library.
🧵🪡Rose Standish Nichols was an embroider, stitching throughout her life. We're lucky to have a number of her works in the museum, including the Jacobean-style crewelwork bed hangings she created, a detail of which you can see here.
On October 17 and 21, Dress and Textile Historian Elizabeth Weisblatt will offer special tours of the textiles in the Nichols House Museum, highlighting items created by Rose Nichols, as well as historic textiles Rose collected.
Attending the tour is also a great opportunity to check out our current exhibit, Embroidered Education, featuring samplers from Rose's collection.
Follow the "Visit" link in our bio for tour tickets. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
We recently hosted Marlene Eidelheit, director of the Textile Conservation Laboratory of The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in NYC. Marlene spent a day examining our two large hanging tapestries—both of which are Flemish and ca. 17th c.—in order to create conservation treatment plan proposals. The Textile Conservation Laboratory is the only conservation facility in the U.S. that can accommodate tapestries of this size when they require specialized surface cleaning in addition to stabilization.
Not only are the tapestries staff and visitor favorites, but they were clearly beloved by the Nichols family who transported them back and forth from 55 Mount Vernon Street to their summer home, Mastlands, in Cornish, NH. A large room was added to Mastlands named the 'tapestry room,' where the tapestries were displayed when not hanging in Boston.
In the photos you can see Marlene Eidelheit at work, the dining room tapestry, the second tapestry hanging in the parlor, and the Mastlands tapestry room.
We spotted a couple of familiar faces on our recent excursion to the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire: Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Nike and Diana. The Cornish versions are on the left, and those in the Nichols House Museum are on the right.
Our new exhibition, Embroidered Education, features samplers from Rose Nichols' collection curated by Dress and Textile Historian Elizabeth Weisblatt. Stop by to view the exhibit and stay tuned for programs in October highlighting our textile collection, including many pieces stitched by Rose. 🪡🧵
Staff outing to Cornish, New Hampshire!
We visited the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site to view Aspet, the home of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and his wife, Augusta. This was a house the Nichols family knew well. Augusta and Augustus were family, aunt and uncle to the Nichols sisters. The Nichols family had a home in Cornish too, just down the road.
One of the highlights of our trip was seeing Rose's name on the New Hampshire Historical Highway Marker for the Cornish art colony!
This Saturday, September 2, we're offering additional tours! Visit at 1:00 or 2:00 and see the house in the afternoon light.
Purchase tickets at Visit link in bio. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
Among the first generation of women who studied at MIT were Margaret and Rose Nichols. In celebration of women MIT alums and students, the Nichols House Museum and the MIT Libraries’ Women@MIT Initiative are hosting a panel on September 28, "Skirts & Slide Rules: Women at MIT from the Nichols Sisters to Now," exploring Tech women’s experiences across four distinct eras spanning the past 150 years.
Follow the Programs & Events link in our bio for more information and to register!
(nicholshousemuseum.org/programs-and-events/)
The 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote was ratified in August 1920. That September, Marian Nichols submitted her nomination papers for public office. Her platform advocated for women’s rights, labor rights, and civil service reform. Here you can see the September 23, 1920 Boston Globe headline announcing her candidacy.
On election day 1920, she escorted her 81-year-old neighbor, Mrs. James B. Brown to the polls. The second image, which ran in the Boston Post on November 3, 1920, shows them arriving at their polling place. According to the photo's caption, Mrs. Brown had "followed the campaign closely and she eagerly awaited the day that she could cast her first vote in a presidential election. She voted at Precinct 4, Ward 8, Brimmer Street. At right is Miss Marian C. Nichols, and at the left is Patrolman Roy Clifford, who was graciously thanked as he assisted the proud voter from the auto."
Although Marian did not win the 1920 election, she continued advocating for political reform throughout her life.
Our Brahmins & Bohemians Beacon Hill walking tour is back on Saturday, September 16, at 10:30 a.m.
Join us for a stroll around the neighborhood to learn about some of the fascinating people who lived on Beacon Hill at the same time as the Nichols family. Among the bohemians we'll meet is writer Louise Guiney, who lived on Pinckney Street. She is pictured here in a photograph taken by her friend Fred Holland Day, who was also a Pinckney Street resident.
Follow the "Visit" link in our bio for walking tour tickets. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
Image from the Library of Congress.
New postcards have arrived in the shop, including this design featuring one of our favorite paintings of Rose Nichols.
On we want to take a moment to thank all the members, donors, and volunteers who make our nonprofit work possible! Most of our funding comes from individuals, many in our own neighborhood. These dedicated supporters bring their encouragement and enthusiasm to 55 Mount Vernon Street, helping us to make this historic space vibrant today. Their dedication enables us to continue Rose Nichols’ vision for years to come. 👏👏👏
We have a new VSR on our team: Diann!
Diann is a public historian with lots of museum experience, including serving as the curator of the Milton Historical Society. When we asked her to select her favorite object in our collection, she pointed to a piece that connects the Nichols House Museum and the Milton Historical Society.
"My favorite object so far is the 1809 painted and gilt console table believed to be signed by the painter, John Ritto Penniman. At the Milton Historical Society, one of our most prized items is a Penniman watercolor of Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s Milton country house, probably the earliest existing image of his estate. I knew that Penniman had painted furniture but had never seen an example, until I was surprised and excited to see this extraordinary table, painted and signed by the artist." 🎨🖌️
Have you been caught in a stray shower recently? ☔ We know we have! Thankfully for us, this lovely, ca. 1850 porcelain umbrella holder in the Nichols House Museum’s entryway reminds us not to forget our umbrellas when we head outside (although sometimes we still do).
The entryway of a properly outfitted late 19th-century home was not complete without some form of umbrella stand, and this solid ceramic type–as opposed to openwork wood or metal types–may have been selected by the Nichols family for its ability to keep water off the floors of their beloved home. This particular piece, composed of luminous green and white porcelain with discreet red and gold touches, is of a style that originated in late 17th-century China and came to be known as “famille verte” when it revived in popularity in the West in the latter half of the 1800s. We think it is just the sort of striking, unique, and globally-sourced object that would have appealed to Rose Nichols's discerning eye!
We invite you to visit to learn more about the Nichols family's beautiful home and the many intriguing objects it contains.
This paw print in the bricks in front of the Nichols House is one of our favorite little details, shared in honor of . 🐈
Extended hours this Saturday!
We're offering tours on the hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 5.
Purchase tickets at Visit link in bio. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit
Book lover + gardener = great combination.
Here are a couple of lovely book covers from Rose Nichols' library.
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New shop items! Stop by and check them out!
Visit during our tour hours or contact us for shopping options.
Summer heatwaves have got us wishing for snow❄️
We're keeping cool by thinking about our annual December fundraiser, the Holiday House Tour.
“Among the recent changes of the week near our house, I observed yesterday the workmen engaged in getting ready the foundation of the Shaw monument in front of the state house.”
Arthur Nichols wrote this to his wife, Elizabeth, 130 years ago, on July 22, 1893. Elizabeth was out of town, at their summer place in Cornish, New Hampshire. In his letters, Arthur often included Boston updates. When he mentioned the Shaw Memorial, which commemorates Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the famous African American Civil War regiment, Arthur was not simply noting new public art in the neighborhood. The memorial was the long-awaited work of his brother-in-law, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Saint-Gaudens was married to Augusta Homer, Elizabeth’s sister. He had been working on the memorial since 1884. What Arthur observed were preparations for the memorial’s official ground-breaking ceremony, held on July 26, 1893, almost exactly 30 years after Shaw and many of the men of the 54th lost their lives at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner. The memorial was officially unveiled on Boston Common in March 1897. Today it is considered by many to be Saint-Gaudens’ masterpiece.
Visit the Nichols House to learn more about Saint-Gaudens and the Nichols family. You can view three works by Saint-Gaudens in the museum, and the Shaw Memorial is just a short walk up Beacon Street.
Photograph from the collection of the Boston Public Library, Arts Department, shared on Digital Commonwealth.
We’re always excited to meet our Beacon Hill neighbors … even if they lived on the Hill a hundred years ago, like these two bacteriologists who lived not far from the Nichols House in 1923.
Catherine Atwood was a bacteriologist with the Boston Health Department. Originally from Lowell, she attended Wellesley College, where she played on the field hockey team and with the mandolin club, graduating in 1918. She worked for the Boston Health Department for more than 40 years, over 20 of which she was the head bacteriologist in charge of laboratory services. Occasionally her work brought her into the public eye, as in 1928 when she analyzed the contents of a lunchbox connected to food poisoning at Ford plant, tracing the outbreak to a tainted cream pie. Awarded the Paul Revere Award by the Massachusetts Public Health Association in 1963, her citation commented on her “first class laboratory.”
The same year Catherine lived on Pinckney Street, bacteriologist Helen Hawthorne Gillette resided at 14 Cedar Lane Way. Helen worked at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Diagnostic Laboratory, where she had been employed since her graduation from Simmons College in 1917. At the time, the diagnostic laboratory was located at the State House. Helen had her moment of celebrity when she was one of three State House employees commended by Governor Calvin Coolidge for their “presence of mind and prompt action” extinguishing a “fire which had enveloped” one of their colleagues. In 1952, she wrote a history of the Diagnostic Laboratory, recounting the lab's efforts to fight diphtheria, typhoid, influenza, and other outbreaks. Helen ultimately became the chief of the diagnostic laboratory, working there for 44 years. 🔬
We're welcoming our newest Visitor Service Representative! Prentice is an experienced museum guide who has worked at a number of historic houses around Massachusetts.
Asked if he already has a favorite object in the Nichols House collection, he quickly pointed to this bookcase built by Margaret (Nichols) Shurcliff. He admires how perfectly it was made to fit a small corner of Rose Nichols’ bedroom.
Margaret, the youngest Nichols daughter, co-owned a business, Pegleggers, designing and hand-building Early American style furniture using traditional hand tools. She also taught woodworking classes. 🔨🪚
Visit to check out Margaret's handiwork and learn more about the Nichols sisters' creations from our amazing VSRs.
Starting July 11 the Nichols House is open on Tuesdays! Visit us at 10, 11, or noon for a Tuesday tour.
Purchase tickets at Visit link in bio. (www.NicholsHouseMuseum.org/Visit)
In honor of , let's talk about some serious chocolate.
The Nichols family loved chocolate. In their account books, chocolate purchases appear regularly, scrupulously recorded alongside the other necessities of life.
In July 1893, Arthur Nichols chatted with someone who had been to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and what he learned sounded delicious. “I hear of a triumphal arch composed entirely of chocolate among the exhibits,” he wrote to his wife. “This I must see, and will try to calculate how long it would take the Nichols family to eat it.”
The Exposition featured a number of oversized chocolate creations. The two most celebrated were Maillard of New York's reproduction of the Venus de Milo and that of German chocolate company Stollwerck: an 11 foot chocolate Germania (the personification of the German nation) housed in a 38 foot pavilion, which reportedly required 30,000 pounds of chocolate to construct.
In September, Arthur got a chance to see these colossal chocolate creations when he and his youngest daughter, Margaret, visited the Exposition in Chicago. He did not mention their chocolate consumption in his letter home, but in his account book he recorded multiple stops at Chocolat-Menier, a French chocolate company.
In their Exposition souvenir booklet, Chocolat-Menier endorsed the healthful effects of drinking chocolate. At the Nichols House, we have a lovely set of Meissen chocolate cups, perfect for sipping chocolate and reliving World's Columbian Exhibition chocolate memories at home.
Chocolat-Menier souvenir booklet from the collection of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, shared on the Internet Archive.
Nora Burke worked for the Nichols family in the early 1900s, living on the top floor of 55 Mount Vernon Street. Her granddaughter and great-granddaughter visited last weekend and brought with them an incredible photo collection. Nora is seen on the left, boating with an unknown woman and dog.
In 2023 we're continuing our exploration into the lives of domestic staff employed by the family.
Today is Rose Nichols' 151st birthday!
Confident, in-charge, and highbrow, Rose Standish Nichols was successful in many walks of life: she is remembered as a garden designer, writer, collector, craftsperson, suffragist and pacifist, historic preservationist, and museum founder. Rose Nichols lived independently at 55 Mount Vernon Street until her death in 1960, at which point it became the Nichols House Museum.
Rose believed in the power of conversation to promote mutual understanding and peace. She had lived through two World Wars and arranged her own intellectual battles in her Beacon Hill parlor. 10-20 guests were invited over every Sunday for a lively discussion over tea.
Her cook and housekeeper, Mary King, remembers, "She'd get somebody started, you know, on politics or international things, and then it all went along. Sometimes they'd be here until eight in the evening. She'd have Harvard professors and neighbors, and if somebody new came and she didn't like them, they wouldn't get asked again."
It's Rose' 151st birthday week!
We're looking for a part-time Research and Public Engagement Intern. This spring's internship focuses on expanding the Museum’s understanding of those employed as domestic staff by the Nichols family. It includes archival and secondary research as well as developing a new public program on the topic.
The intern will work roughly 11 weeks for around 11 hours per week during February - April 2023 and receive a $1,500 stipend. Applications are due by January 13th. More details can be found at he bottom of our "About" page. www.nicholshousemuseum.org/about
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me... instructions to take down the Christmas tree? The Victorians popularized the Christmas tree and determined when it should come down- Twelfth Night. One could also consume the fruits and nuts traditionally used to decorate.
The Museum is closed this month but tours resume in February. Stay warm and see you then!
(The wine tours are still on for those with tickets. Otherwise they are sold out.)
New year, new look! Kind of. The daybed cover in Rose's bedroom needed to be conserved to secure it's longevity, so this faithful reproduction now sits in its place.
Kathy Gubernat of The Seamstress Shop created it using velvet and gimp. About 5 years ago she reproduced the Museum's curtains as well.
Textiles are one of the most fragile things in our collection. This is especially true since our collection is always on view and therefore doesn't get a break from potentially deteriorating effects. Reproductions are currently the best way for us to maintain accuracy in the historic house while also preserving its belongings for years to come.
1961.484a-c
It's officially 2023 so we're at the end of our countdown with just one more to go. Over the last few months, what did visitors say their favorite thing in the house was? The tapestries! The two largest tapestries hang complimentarily in the dining room and parlor. If I had to guess an overall favorite, it would be the one with a unicorn.
"Feuilles de Choux" tapestry, Spanish Netherlands, ca. 1550-1600. Silk, wool, linen. 1961.192.
Daphne and Apollo tapestry, Spanish Netherlands, ca. late 16th-early 17th or early 18th century. Silk, wool, linen. 1961.208
Happy New Year's Eve! TIED for 2nd in our countdown of favorite things at the Nichols House: "wood carvings" and "sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens". Visitors are sometimes surprised to learn that two of the three Nichols sisters worked with wood. Rose (1872-1960) in particular was encouraged artistically by her "Uncle Gus" and worked in multiple mediums. Her chairs and chest (detail seen here) are tour highlights.
Three sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) live in the house and one, the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial, can be found just down the hill. There's a lot to cover between these numerous works, so I'll point you to our website's collection page for more! www.nicholshousemuseum.org/collection-highlights
Rose Standish Nichols. Chest, early 20th century. Mahogany. 2018.01
Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Diana, 1893-94 (this cast, 1894). Bronze. T-59.
55 Mount Vernon Street
Boston, MA
02108
| Wednesday | 10am - 12:45pm |
| Thursday | 10am - 12:45pm |
| Friday | 10am - 12:45pm |
| Saturday | 10am - 12:45pm |
| Sunday | 10am - 12:45pm |
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Emerson's Backyard Boston features the Nichols House! Backyard Boston highlights the great sites at Emerson's doorstep. What's at your doorstep?
In 1885, Dr. Arthur Nichols and his wife Elizabeth purchased an 1804 townhouse attributed to architect Charles Bulfinch. The house was where their three daughters matured into designers, writers, and social activists. In 1930, Rose Standish Nichols (1872-1960) inherited the property and began laying the plans for its establishment as a museum. Soon after her death in 1960, the Nichols House Museum opened to the public. Today, the Museum engages with the social concerns of those who lived and worked in the house.
The Nichols House Museum maintains and preserves an original collection which reflects the Nichols family's cultural values and changing tastes across two generations. Highlights include sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Flemish tapestries, Japanese woodblock prints, and Boston furniture. Visitors also encounter day-to-day objects including an 1897 dumbwaiter and a 1936 radio.
The Nichols House Museum welcomes visitors year-round. It provides an active schedule of lectures, programs, and special events for its members and the surrounding Boston community. The Nichols House Museum offers engaging tours and public programming for all ages. Groups that visit include students from nearby colleges and universities, adult learners, and youth.
Visit and join the conversation.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Muse
Columbia Point
Arts for Learning Massachusetts
South Street
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at
Boylston Street
Massachusetts Historical Society
Boylston Street
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