Concord Museum

Founded in 1886 in Concord, Massachusetts, the Concord Museum holds one of the older and more thoroughly documented collections of early Americana, with strengths in the American Revolution and Concord’s literary history. Its best-known artifact is the lantern linked to the 1775 “one if by land, and two if by sea” signal. Revolutionary-era objects such as powder horns, muskets, cannonballs, and fifes connect it to Concord’s wartime past. It also preserves Concord’s 19th-century intellectual life through Emerson’s reconstructed study and the world’s largest collection of Thoreau possessions. After a 2021 renovation, its interpretation broadened to include enslaved people, indigenous people, and colonial women.

Concord, Massachusetts · United States