Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum

05/30/2026

Running from the ground, up along the north facade and perched on top the gambrel roof is a lightning rod, said to be added during the house's 1799 renovation by Charles Phelps. In the 1920s, engineers coming to the house from the Underwriters Laboratory of Chicago were profoundly impressed by it and stated it must be one of the first true Franklin Rods. They dated it back as early as 1800 or before.

Learn more about this interesting piece of technology and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

https://www.pphmuseum.org/blogging-through-the-museum/2017/9/27/franklin-lightning-rod

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours Saturdays through Wednesdays from 1 - 4 pm.

Running from the ground, up along the north facade and perched on top the gambrel roof is a lightning rod, said to be added during the house's 1799 renovation by Charles Phelps. In the 1920s, engineers coming to the house from the Underwriters Laboratory of Chicago were profoundly impressed by it an

05/23/2026

From the mid 18th to the mid 19th century, one of the most distinctive milestones in a girl’s education was the creation of a needlework sampler. A sampler - defined as a piece of needlework with various stitches- was part of the learning process for young girls to attain skills in sewing. The sampler piece above was created in 1814 by Bethia Huntington at just eight years old and serves as an excellent example to these preliminary works completed at a young age.

Learn more about samples and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!
https://www.pphmuseum.org/blogging-through-the-museum/2021/8/5/needlework

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum is open for tours Saturday through Wednesday from 1 to 4 pm.

From the mid 18th to the mid 19th century, one of the most distinctive milestones in a girl’s education was the creation of a needlework sampler. A sampler - defined as a piece of needlework with various stitches- was part of the learning process for young girls to attain skills in sewing. A young...

05/17/2026

Emily Whitted, curator of the new exhibit American Girlhood at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, shares what makes "mends", and textile work, so meaningful.
The exhibit includes needlework from the PPH Collections: an unfinished coat of arms worked by Elizabeth Porter Phelps!

For doctoral researcher Emily Whitted, repaired textiles are more than signs of wear. They are records of labor and ingenuity that connect museum collections to the lived experiences of early Americans.

05/13/2026

In the late 18th and early 19th century America, Chinese porcelain was an extremely popular import. Distinctive blue and white table items, known as “Canton ware”, were seen as minor status symbols and could be found in upper and middle class households throughout New England. Nearly all porcelain imported from China was manufactured in the city of Guangzhou, the only Chinese port open to foreign trade during the period.

This particular set of china was donated to the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House in 2016 by David M.G. Huntington, the nephew of the museum's founder, Dr. James Lincoln Huntington. It was originally amassed over the course of the 19th century by the family of Dr. Huntington’s grandmother (known as the Stearns) some time before 1820.

Learn more about this beautiful import an other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

In the late 18th and early 19th century America, Chinese porcelain was an extremely popular import. Distinctive blue and white table items, known as “Canton ware”, were seen as minor status symbols and could be found in upper and middle class households throughout New England. Nearly all porcela...

05/06/2026

Captain Simon Fitch of Lebanon, CT, married Dan Huntington’s sister, Wealthy Huntington. Presumably through this connection Fitch came to paint the wedding portraits of his brother-in-law Dan and new bride Elizabeth Whiting Phelps sometime around 1801, when the two were married. The portraits of Dan and Elizabeth Huntington, the third generation, are the earliest known likenesses of residents of Forty Acres.

Learn more about this set of portraits and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

https://www.pphmuseum.org/simon-fitch-portraits

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum will open for tours May 2026.

04/29/2026

Tea has been a prominent custom since the mid-seventeenth century. In the colonial era it developed as an important commodity, a political chess piece, and a symbol of prestige in society. The colonial tea table would not be complete without tea pots, teaspoons, lemon forks, infusers, sugar bowls, creamers, jam jars, saucers, and more. All of these components and accessories were crucial to the tradition of tea, which was required for young colonists to become respected adults in society.
Pictured here, is a tea caddy that belonged to General Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810).

Learn more about this tea set and other unique items in the PPH collection on our website!

https://www.pphmuseum.org/blogging-through-the-museum/2018/7/23/general-lincolns-parquet-tea-caddy

The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum will open for tours May 2026.

Tea has been a prominent custom since the mid-seventeenth century [1] . In the colonial era it developed as an important commodity, a political chess piece, and a symbol of prestige in society. The colonial tea table would not be complete without tea pots, teaspoons, lemon forks, infusers, sugar bow

04/22/2026

Elizabeth and Moses engaged in land stewardship practices at Forty Acres that mirrored the trends of their neighbors and created a dynamic synergy that sustained human, plant, and animal life. Elizabeth and Moses, with the assistance of enslaved, free, and indentured laborers, cleared surrounding woodland for increased cultivation and sold the felled trees as lumber or used this lumber to build necessary outbuildings. On this cleared acreage, the Porters planted fields of wheat, Indian corn, oats, and barley.

Learn more about the history of land stewardship on our website and happy Earth Day!

Schematic of common lands in relation to the original settlement of Hadley. Note the Forty Acres Meadow and its Skirts. Comprised by Regina Leonard using information from Judd, Sylvester. The History of Hadley, Massachussets. Somersworth, New Hampshire Publishing Co. 1976., and "Map of Hadley, Massa...

04/15/2026

Elizabeth Pitkin Porter (1719-1798) of East Hartford is the first documented wearer of this patterned silk dress, which is a brocaded silk woven in several colors, on a patterned ground weave. The large, dense floral design seen on the fabric suggests a mid-late 1730s date. It is possible, therefore, that Elizabeth’s gown was not brand new for her own wedding (Elizabeth and Moses were married in 1742), but perhaps a dress made up from an earlier event for herself or another woman.

Learn more about this incredible dress on our website: https://www.pphmuseum.org/epps-wedding-dress

Learn more about the PPH collections here: https://www.pphmuseum.org/collections

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will be open for tours starting May 16th, 2026.

Catharine Huntington (1887-1987)  (pictured here) also wore Elizabeth Pitkin's wedding dress. This black and white photograph has been hand-colored to indicate how it would have looked when Catharine wore it around the start of the 20th century.

04/08/2026

Labor at Forty Acres reflected the diversity of the American home front during the Revolutionary War, a product of the trans-national conflict over The Dawn-Land, or New England. People of Indigenous, European and African ancestry had been working and contesting the land for generations. The war-time practice of indenturing prisoners of war to American farms further expanded a trans-national exchange among the residents of Hadley.

The above text is from the a new PPH exhibit that surfaces stories from the American revolution. It is currently on display at the Frost Library at Amherst College! Amherst College Library
Learn more about life and labor at PPH on our website:

Letter from Sezor (Cesar) Phelps to Charles Phelps, Porter-Phelps-Huntington FamilyPapers, Box 4 Folder 12, Amherst College Archives and Special Collection.