Historic Northampton

March 2023 Events

From Nonotuck to Northampton:

Recovering Indigenous Histories

A Zoom Presentation by Margaret M. Bruchac, University of Pennsylvania

Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 7 pm

Historic Northampton’s newly launched “Indigenous Native History” features the scholarship of Margaret M. Bruchac. The centerpiece is a resource-rich and extended essay titled “From Nonotuck to Northampton: Recovering Indigenous Histories,” which re-examines colonial era encounters between Nonotuck and settlers, offers Indigenous perspectives, and gives readers the tools to better understand the historical record. The website also includes a visual history, maps, links to relevant historical publications and documents, and more.

Join Dr. Bruchac for a presentation about her research, followed by a question and answer period. You can access the research project here: Indigenous Native History.

Margaret M. Bruchac, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Associate Faculty in Cultural Heritage, and Coordinator of Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Register for the Zoom link. (This program will not be recorded.)

Sliding scale admission: $5 to $25.

Students: free of charge.

Learn More | Register

Making History Manifest: Photography in the Archives

A Zoom Presentation by Photographer & Scholar Wendel White



Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 3 pm

Throughout his career, photographer and scholar Wendel White has sought to “excavate Black history through material culture” by exploring the history and lived experience of African American communities through objects, images, and documents found in archives and historical collections.



During March 2023, White will be one of three artists featured in After Archives, a contemporary art exhibition curated by Amy Halliday at Northampton's A.P.E. Gallery. In this presentation, White will discuss the role of archives and museum collections in his own work (and particularly in the ongoing project, Manifest), his interest in examining the impulses and motivations to preserve history and record memory, and his belief that remnants of material culture are imbued with the power to help challenge our pre-conceived ideas.

In partnership with the David Ruggles Center and A.P.E. Gallery.

Register for the Zoom link.

Sliding scale admission: $5 to $25.

Students: free of charge.

Learn More | Register

Exploring Northampton

A Sunset Walk in the Meadows

A Walking Tour with Co-director & Naturalist Laurie Sanders

Saturday, March 18, 2023 | 5:30-7:30 pm

Join co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders for a walk down Hockanum Road to the site of the former Hockanum Ferry on the Connecticut River. The return leg will coincide with the sunset, which is one of the most beautiful times to be in the Meadows. We will view the Holyoke Range and appreciate the broad floodplain that shaped so much of Northampton's history.

To and from the river, we'll hope for flocks of migrating Canada geese and ducks ... and possibly an aerial performance by a woodcock (or two).

Pre-registration is required.

Limited to 25 participants.

Sliding scale admission: $10 to $25.

Learn More | Register

A History of Women’s Basketball and Northampton’s Early Role in the Sport

A Zoom Presentation by Sport Historian Dr. Rita Liberti



Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at 7 pm

When the nation’s top two women’s intercollegiate basketball teams compete for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship on April 2, 2023, it will mark 130 years since the first women’s college game was played. On March 22, 1893, Smith College Physical Education Director Senda Berenson introduced her students to the new game of “basket-ball.” Immediately, student athletes and fans on the Northampton campus were drawn to the game that became a centerpiece of campus life. 

Sport historian Rita Liberti will describe the early history of women’s basketball, from its beginning in Northampton to its spread across the nation. During the first few decades of the twentieth century, girls and women’s basketball teams were sponsored by schools, churches, playground associations, and factories. She will explore how the history of women’s basketball sheds light on larger social and cultural issues in the United States, including gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and class.

Introductory remarks by Christine Shelton, Professor Emerita of Exercise & Sport Studies, Smith College.

In partnership with Smith College Athletics, Smith College Special Collections, and the Center for Sport & Social Justice at California State University, East Bay. 

Register for the Zoom link.

Sliding scale admission: $5 to $25.

Students: free of charge.

Learn More | Register

Margaret M. Bruchac with Native steatite cooking pot from an unidentified site in Quaboag territory in Brookfield, MA. This pot, one of many collected by Amherst College, is now housed in the Historic Northampton collection. Photo courtesy of Margaret M. Bruchac.

Wendel White, Afro-American Sentinel, 1899, Great Plain Black History Museum, Omaha, NE, pigment inkjet print, from the series Manifest.

Northampton Meadows, Laurie Sanders.

Northampton High School Girls Basketball Team, 1939, Hoffman Studios, Northampton, MA.