As part of its mission, the Museum will highlight the familial and regional influences which shaped Ms. Anthony’s early life, by displaying the textiles and furnishings of that period, as well as the literature and other memorabilia associated with her later career.

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Orchard House (c. 1650) is most noted for being where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set Little Women in 1868.  This noble home also has a rich history stretching back two centuries beforehand, as well as more than 100 years of life as a treasured historic site open to the public.

The Alcotts were a famous yet flawed family who firmly believed in the power of unconditional love, personal agency, and social justice.  Discover the many ways in which they impacted literature, education, philosophy, art, reforms of all kinds, and each other.

Orchard House is open year-round for guided tours, educational programs, living history, and special events.  No matter the season, or whether you are a Little Women fan, educator, family, student, or scholar, there’s always something to enjoy!

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The Yiddish Book Center is a nonprofit organization working to recover, celebrate, and regenerate Yiddish and modern Jewish literature and culture.

The million books recovered by the Yiddish Book Center represent Jews’ first sustained literary and cultural encounter with the modern world. They are a window on the past thousand years of Jewish history, a precursor of modern Jewish writing in English, Hebrew and other languages, and a springboard for new creativity. Since our founding in 1980 we have launched a wide range of bibliographic, educational, and cultural programs to share these treasures with the wider world.

Our educational programs include graduate fellowships and courses for high school students, college students, teachers, and adult learners.

Our translation initiative includes a fellowship to train new Yiddish-to-English translators and publishing projects that bring this great literature to new audiences.

Our Wexler Oral History Project is a growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories offer a rich, complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

The world’s first Yiddish museum, we’re home to permanent and visiting exhibits.

We offer a full calendar of public programs, such as film screening, talks, and concerts, including the annual Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music.

We publish our English-language magazine, Pakn Treger, with news from the Center and features on Yiddish and Jewish literature and culture. Available by subscription to Yiddish Book Center members.

You can also follow the latest news at Heft (Notebook) and on Facebook, Twitter (@YiddishBookCtr), and Instagram (yiddish_book_center).

Programs at the Yiddish Book Center:

• Field Trip Program
• Great Jewish Books Summer Program
• Steiner Summer Yiddish Program
• Graduate Fellowships
• Tent: Encounters with Jewish Culture
• Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library
• Translation Fellowship
• Wexler Oral History Project
• Yiddish Language Institute
• YiddishSchool
• Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music

The website of the Yiddish Book Center is made possible through the support of Walter, Arnee, Sarah, and Aaron Winshall.

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William Cullen Bryant, born November 3, 1794, astonished the literary world with the publication of his first major poem at age 13. Most of his poetry drew inspiration from the Cummington countryside surrounding the Homestead. In 1817, “Thanatopsis,” Bryant’s most famous poem, was published while he practiced law in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

After his marriage to Frances Fairchild, the family moved to New York City in 1825 where the poet and former lawyer began a career as editor, first at literary publications and eventually as editor-in-chief and publisher at the New York Evening Post. He held this position for the rest of his life.

In 1834 Bryant embarked on the first of many lengthy trips, traveling widely in the U.S. and taking seven trips abroad. Many of his exotic travel mementos are now at the Homestead. Famous as a publisher and editor, Bryant’s public life involved him on many fronts as a politician and conservationist, leading to the creation of New York City’s Central Park. Artists of the Hudson River School considered Bryant their muse. At his death in 1878, Bryant was an iconic figure. His fame was so widespread that the centennial of his birth in 1894 drew thousands of people to the Homestead to celebrate his life and accomplishments.

Located on a hillside overlooking the Westfield River Valley, the Homestead is on the site of the original Cummington community founded in 1762. The Town Meetinghouse was constructed in 1782 near what is now the five-corner intersection of the Homestead. Seven years later it was moved and a schoolhouse, which Bryant attended, was erected on the site. Cummington’s center shifted to the valley and as the community grew, Bryant’s father, Dr. Peter Bryant, served as a physician and in the state legislature.

Cummington’s population diminished after 1840, since many townspeople, like Bryant’s family, abandoned their farms and moved westward. As Bryant observed, “the soil is now exhausted; the fields are turned into pastures/and the land which once sufficed for two farms now barely answers for one.” Woodlands, a source of fuel and building materials, were also depleted.

In 1865, 30 years after the Homestead was sold out of the family, Bryant purchased his former boyhood home and used it as a summer retreat from late July through early September for the remainder of his life. Year-round the house was occupied by a series of caretakers and their families.

Bryant remained deeply committed to his childhood community and made a number of significant contributions to Cummington. He donated $500 to build a new schoolhouse located near the Homestead. A larger gift was a library, complete with a book collection and a librarian’s residence. These two structures remain on the south intersection of Routes 9 and 112. To make access easier to the Library from the Homestead, Bryant paid for a road that later became part of Route 112. He also built a road to West Cummington from the Homestead that is still in use today.

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