Calendar of Events

All Virtual Events are recorded and posted to the Museum’s YouTube page.

Most of our virtual programs are offered free of charge.
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DECEMBER

Tuesday, November 26 – Sunday, December 29
Celebrating our 12th holiday season!
A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House: Charles Dickens in New York, 1867
In December 1867, Charles Dickens arrived in New York City for a month of sold-out performances of his beloved holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. As the New York Herald exclaimed, “The Christmas Carol becomes doubly enchanting when one hears it performed by Dickens.”

Join Mr. Dickens, portrayed by John Kevin Jones, as he tells his timeless Christmas tale in the elegant intact Greek Revival double parlor of the landmark 1832 Merchant’s House Museum.

Surrounded by 19th century holiday decorations, flickering candles, and richly appointed period furnishings, audiences will be transported back 150 years in this captivating performance created from Dickens’ own script. Tickets & Information.

 

On YouTube!
Warmth from the Hearth – 19th Century Holiday Stories for the Season of Light
Join us for storytelling of 19th-century holiday literature read by actor Dayle Vander Sande in our authentic 19th century parlor. These tales, by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edward Payson Roe, Frank Stockton, and Helen Keller, among others, will be sure to get you in the mood at this most festive time of year. Dayle is a longtime museum volunteer and Director of the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society, the vocal arts group-in-residence at the Merchant’s House. Watch on YouTube.

 

JANUARY

On YouTube!
Celebrating New Year’s Day 2025 with the Tredwells
Paying social calls on friends and family on the first day of the new year was one of Old New York’s most cherished customs. Join us – virtually – for good cheer to toast the New Year and learn how New Yorkers like the Tredwells celebrated the day.

In this immersive video experience, we’ll go back in time to the mid-19th century to meet the Tredwells and hear how they’ve been decking the house for New Year’s Day and preparing their lists of social calls. Join us as we continue the 19th century tradition of renewing, reviving, and reaffirming friendships that last the whole year through. Watch on YouTube.

 

Wednesday, January 22, 6:30 p.m.
Beyond Vanity: The History and Powerof Hairdressing
Book Talk with Elizabeth L. Brock
Co-Sponsored by Salmagundi Club, Coffee House Club, Village Preservation, and Victorian Society NY
In the 19th century, the complex cultural meaning of hair was not only significant – it could affect one’s place in society. After the Civil War, hairdressing was a growing profession and the hair industry a mainstay of local, national, and international commerce. In Beyond Vanity, Elizabeth L. Block expands the nascent field of hair studies by restoring women’s hair as a cultural site of meaning in the early United States. With a special focus on the places and spaces in which the industry operated, Block argues that the importance of hair has been overlooked due to its ephemerality as well as its misguided association with frivolity and triviality. As Block clarifies, hairdressing was anything but frivolous. Free, registration required. Register for “Book Talk with Elizabeth L. Brock.

Event Location: Salmagundi Club, 47 5th Avenue

 

 

Current Exhibitions

Exhibitions are included with regular museum admission.

Holiday Exhibition Open through Sunday, January 5
A Jolly Holiday: Christmas Traditions from New Amsterdam
While filling their home with holiday cheer, the Tredwells were unlikely to be thinking about where these traditions came from. But in fact, many parts of their Christmas celebration were holdovers from New York’s Dutch founding. To “ring-in” the 400th anniversary of the Dutch founding of New Amsterdam, we are highlighting some Dutch traditions that persisted into the 19th century, many of which are familiar to us today.

Santa Claus, Christmas cookies, and New Year’s Day calling were important and familiar parts of the holiday season for the Tredwell family. These traditions, and more, got their start in colonial New Amsterdam. By the time the Tredwells were celebrating Christmas, almost 200 years later, the traditions had changed and been transformed by the many other communities here in New York City.

On display, holiday gifts from the Tredwell collection, and holiday decorations throughout the house.

 

VIRTUAL EXHIBITIONS | ONLINE OFFERINGS