Black Experience Tour

These tours highlight narratives and collections that focus on the Black experience and allow participants to visit multiple local museums for one low price. Join us on one of the scheduled public dates, or contact us to book the experience for your group, info@stowecenter.org or 860.522.9258 x 317. Tour dates listed below. Please note that tickets must be purchased at least 1 week in advance.

Half Day Tour – Two museums: $30.00 per person

10 AM tour, optional lunch and 1 PM tour

Full Day Tour – Three museums: $40.00 per person

10 AM tour, optional lunch 1 PM tour, and 2:30 PM tour

Current tour dates

June: 15

July: 10 and 20

Buy your tickets here.

To arrange a visit of all three sites, please contact, cfarrell@stowecenter.org or 860.522.9258, x 317.

At the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, our Black Perspectives tour emphasizes the Black experience of the 19th century and today. During a guided tour, guests will uncover the voices of people of color surrounding Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Black Perspectives tour uses Stowe’s home and collections to promote vibrant conversations focused on the Black voices that influenced Stowe and the voices that influence positive change today.

At the Connecticut Historical Society, a behind-the-scenes tour of their collections spaces will highlight items that tell the story of black Connecticans, both ordinary and extraordinary, from the 1600s to today. You’ll learn about a Harlem Renaissance writer, Ann Petry, who carefully preserved artifacts chronicling the black community of Saybrook. Examine daguerreotypes by Augustus Washington, who abandoned a successful Hartford photography business to build a new nation in Africa. Browse through the photo album of a Hollywood actress who became a champion of labor rights for black entertainers. Marvel at the gorgeous costumes created by CT’s West Indian community for their annual MAS celebration. And get to know James Pennington, a hero of the anti-slavery movement whose words later became an inspiration for Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the Amistad Center, your tour will focus on how, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African Americans used photography to commemorate important events, but also to express self-dignity and respect. Investigate black identity and imagery, how contemporary social movements started from behind the camera and ways photography help heal a divided community.

Watch us on WFSB tv!

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2023

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.