Day Trips

In celebration of Pequot Library’s 135th anniversary, please join us for three field trips to historic sites in Connecticut with connections to the library’s founding. Participants will travel to each of the three destinations on their own, where they will meet with Pequot Library staff members and the respective museum curators for detailed tours. Space is limited to 25 attendees for each tour. 

Thursday, September 5: Hill-Stead Museum
Thursday, October 3: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Thursday, November 7: Wadsworth Atheneum

Tickets

$50 per person per tour OR $140 per person for all three tours
Each ticket includes admission and lunch.

Hill-Stead Museum Day Trip | Thursday, September 5

12:00 p.m. | Lunch at Hartford Baking Co. (767 Farmington Ave., Farmington)
1:30 p.m. | Tour at Hill-Stead Museum (35 Mountain Rd., Farmington)

Located in the beautiful Farmington Historic District, the Hill-Stead Museum is renowned for its world-class collection of impressionist paintings, including Claude Monet’s Grainstacks, White Frost Effect (1889) and Edgar Degas’ Dancers in Pink (1876). Participants will not only learn about the fantastic collection, but they will also learn about the woman and family who made it all possible. 

Theodate Pope Riddle designed her family’s estate, Hill-Stead, in the late 19th century. She became the first female architect licensed in New York, establishing herself as a boundary pusher much like Pequot Library’s founder, Virginia Marquand Monroe. Both women ran in similar circles while also cherishing and promoting the arts and culture of their respective communities.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library | Thursday, October 3

1:00 p.m. | Tour at Beinecke (121 Wall St., New Haven)
2:30 p.m. | Lunch at Mory’s (306 York St., New Haven)

Located in an original and innovative structure built in 1963 by Gordon Bunshaft, the Beinecke Library serves as the rare books repository for Yale University. It contains such treasures as the Gutenberg Bible and the cryptic Voynich Manuscript. Participants will have the privilege to explore and tour this center of learning and knowledge.

Pequot Library has maintained a special relationship with the Beinecke Library for decades, and on this trip participants will look at a selection of items from the Monroe, Wakeman, and Holman Collection of the Pequot Library Association. Afterward, the group will walk over to Mory’s, a private club rich in Yale University lore that sits adjacent to the campus, for lunch. 

Wadsworth Atheneum | Thursday, November 7

12:00 p.m. | Lunch at the Museum Café (600 Main St., Hartford)
1:00 p.m. | Tour at Wadsworth Atheneum (600 Main St., Hartford)

The Wadsworth Atheneum holds the distinction of being the oldest continually operating art museum in the United States, and its collection reflects this longevity. Widely considered one of the top art museums in New England, the Wadsworth’s American decorative arts collection in particular draws scholarly attention from around the globe. 

Participants will tour the American decorative arts collection with Philippe Halbert, an associate curator of American decorative arts. He will pay special attention to the incredible examples of Marquand and Co. silver in the collection. 

Marquand and Co. and its impressive success helped to pave the way for the eventual opening of Pequot Library. Frederick Marquand, our founder Virginia Marquand Monroe’s uncle and adopted father, worked laboriously to transform his family’s company into a world-renowned brand name. Examples of their work grace the collections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Savannah’s Telfair Museums, and the Wadsworth’s collection is seen as one of the best. 

Is the tour you want sold out? Email publicprograms@pequotlibrary.org to reserve your spot on the waitlist.