First Annual King House Museum & Barn and 880 Burbank Studios Croquet Tournament & Lawn Party

📋 Register for the tournament here

Click here for more details

📍 King House

Due to forecasted rain, the Ice Cream Social has moved to Wednesday, July 9.

Pack family, lawn chairs and picnic supper. Enjoy ice cream and music.

📍 King House Lawn

Presented by Daniel Thorp, Professor Virginia Tech, Author

Annual Meeting at 7:00 p.m. • Program starts at 7:30 p.m.

Flora was an enslaved woman living in Suffield, Connecticut, who in 1781 ran away to be with her husband in Massachusetts. Her owner recaptured Flora and sold her. She spent the rest of her life enslaved in Virginia. 60 years after her mother’s second enslavement, Unis, Flora’s daughter and other family members sued for their freedom. It was the longest-running freedom suit in Virginia history.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

💻 Join meeting via Zoom
Meeting ID: 812 1162 6066
Passcode: History

The annual meeting starts at 7:00pm, followed by the Seeking Justice program at 7:30pm.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

Presented by Christine Ritok, Curator

Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell (1761-1830), a physician born in Connecticut, who spent most of his career in Hartford County, is best known today as one of the founders of the American School for the Deaf. He helped his friend, renowned American portrait painter, Ralph Earl (1751-1801), avoid debtors’ prison by serving as his court-appointed guardian, making possible Earl’s series of extraordinary portraits of prominent Connecticut citizens. Cogswell also pioneered cataract surgery in the United States, and was the first American doctor to successfully tie a carotid artery. But it is his daily life as a practicing physician, as documented in his day books in the collection of the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History, that best shed light on the practice of medicine in New England at the end of the 18th and in the early 19th century. The content of these day books and what they reveal about daily life will be the focus of this talk.

📍 Police Station meeting room, 911 Mountain Road

💻 Join meeting via Zoom

Presented by Lynda Montefusco, artist and teacher

Rain date: Sunday, May 18, 2025

For experienced beginners to advanced Plein Air painters. Teacher will provide an oil palette upon request. Students will provide a canvas (11x14 or 12x16), easel, chair, table, paint brushes, sunscreen, water, etc. Limited enrollment.

Cost: $75. Payment or notification that payment is forthcoming is due on May 1, 2025.

Send notification to Jackie Hemond at jives98@hotmail.com

• Pay check to: The Suffield Historical Society

• Send to:
  The Suffield Historical Society
  Plein Air Class
  PO Box 893
  Suffield, CT 06078
  

📍 King House Grounds

Get your favorite pieces appraised. Certified appraisers will be on site.

$5 appraisal donation to the Suffield Historical Society per item.

Free tours available.

📍 King House Barn

Free tour of the house and barn. All are welcome!

Open every Wednesday and Saturday until September 27, 2025

Suffield has long celebrated its rich history, and artists that lived or worked in town have a remarkable legacy of their own.  Spanning three centuries, the exhibit will feature highlights from the Society’s collection, including a stunning recently-acquired silk and watercolor embroidered scene from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, made by Elizabeth Leavitt (later Loomis, 1788-1865) made in 1806, when she was a student, likely in Hartford; a unique wood carving made by Willis Seaver Adams (1842-1921) for his home on East Street; and, recently-donated works by Alice Ahrens Williams and Peggy MacKinnon.  With the help of local artist and author Laurie Tavino, the Society has, for the first time, put out a call to artists from or currently residing in Suffield, to lend their work.  Over 40 local artists, past and present, will be featured in the exhibit, which will be open free to the public Saturdays and Wednesdays from 1-4pm from May 3rd to October 11th.

📍 King House Museum & Barn

All that can help are welcome. Work gloves would be helpful.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

Bill Sullivan’s American Studies Class, Suffield Academy

The class will present their discoveries of Cesar Negro, a Revolutionary War soldier, whose name is inscribed on the Suffield Veterans Memorial.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

💻 Join meeting via Zoom

POSTPONED TO APRIL 26 DUE TO WEATHER

Presented by Dennis Picard, Historian

When trained medical practioners were scarce, feared and expensive, Americans trusted general store cure-alls: nostrums and elixirs to cure everything from headaches to cholera and cancer. Come hear some stories of popular nostrums.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

💻 Join meeting via Zoom
Meeting ID: 393 795 0693 | Passcode: History

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

Presented by Robert Lecce, Pewter Pot Fine Spiced Chocolates

Immerse yourself in 18th-century chocolate making during this lecture and demonstration. Samples of chocolate and hot cocoa. Chocolates available for purchase. Limited registrations.

• Registration required: Please email rsvphistory@gmail.com

📍 In-person only • Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

Presented by Jan Beatty, Wadsworth Atheneum

Beatty will talk about the Hudson River School with a focus on Frederic Church, who grew up in Hartford, and his teacher Thomas Cole. The Wadsworth owns several of their paintings.

💻 Join meeting via Zoom

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

Sponsored by Suffield Polish Heritage Society. Arranged by Jim Turek.

Come sing along to traditional Polish Christmas Carols.

📍 Sacred Heart Church, 446 Mountain Rd. Suffield, CT

Bill Sullivan and Jason Cromack will host a Native American history topic evening for Suffield residents to discuss and share a Native American history subjects related to our town and region. Jason will update the Society about a recent donation of Suffield.

Artifacts gifted to us through the Windsor Tobacco Museum. Bill will highlight Robert C. Stewart’s text, A Cultural History of the Agawam Indians, 1988. Bob Stewart was a trustee of the Suffield Historical Society who recently passed away.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street
💻 Join meeting via Zoom

Leading up to Wednesday, November 13th 7:30pm program, Jason and Bill will lead a walk into the eastern woods of Suffield Academy’s campus from 12:00pm-1:15pm on Saturday, November 9th. Those eager to hike and dig a few test pits for artifacts should gather shortly before noon on Saturday in the Second Baptist Church parking lot. Hikers should take presentations to protect themselves against ticks and wear appropriate shoes. 

📍 Second Baptist Church parking lot

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

Join us in costume on the porch to enjoy the camaraderie and the treats.

📍 King House Museum Porch

All that can help are welcome. Work gloves would be helpful.

Lunch provided

Presented by Sara Zak

A focus on the influential and successful Polish immigrants affiliated with the St. Joseph Society

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street

💻 Join meeting via Zoom

The walk is historical, not scary and not for young children. Older children and adults are welcome.

• WALK-INS WELCOME!

• $5/person fee

📍 Old Center Cemetery, behind the First Congregational Church

Presented by author Peter Sorenson. Learn the story of the rise and fall of the Hazard Powder Company, one of the largest gunpowder manufacturing facilities in the country in the 1800s. Book available for purchase.

📍 Suffield Volunteer Ambulance, 205 Bridge Street
💻 Join meeting via Zoom

Join us for an estate and barn sale at the King House Museum & Barn!