Unlocking Barnard Tavern: Exploring the Commercial and Private World of a Deerfield Public House, 1795-1805

FAIN: MC-50023-06

Historic Deerfield, Inc. (Deerfield, MA 01342-0321)
Anne D. Lanning (Project Director: September 2005 to June 2007)

Consultation to plan a self-guided tour and a permanent multi-media exhibition to interpret the social and political roles of Deerfield's tavern in the late 18th and early 19th century.

Humanities scholars for the project will help reinterpret the tavern focusing on the early years of the New Republic, and technical advisors will recommend interactive e-tools to supplement on-site visits and further provoke curiosity and questioning. The tavern will be re-installed as a self-guided experience with stories about tavern owners, patrons and others in a local and national context. At Historic Deerfield, the tavern is the best place where visitors can learn about a community center where news was disseminated, broadsides read, auctions and probate court held, and citizens gathered for public discourse. The tavern connected the town to the outside world by serving as a busy stagecoach stop between Boston and Albany.