For generations, Hammond Castle Museum has been an exciting destination for young visitors from Cape Ann and throughout New England; an historic architectural landmark constructed to serve as the home and laboratory of one of the most prolific inventors in American history, and designed to house not only a vast collection of artifacts dating from the period of the Roman Empire through the 20th century, but also a one-of-a-kind organ with over 8,000 individual pipes. The Museum’s founder, John Hays Hammond Jr. (1888-1965) intended the building as a site where visitors of all ages could interact with the artifacts in the collection in a casual and authentic setting and, in doing so, gain a genuine appreciation for and understanding of history, culture, art, music, architecture, and engineering. The Museum can trace our commitment to local schools all the way to our first opening, in the early 1930s, when a graduating class of Gloucester High School became the building’s first public visitors. As one contemporary article put it;
“…where collectors, sightseers and antiquaries have failed to gain admission to its interior, it fell to the lot of the high school pupils to be the first to view its wonders.”
Since that day, Hammond Castle Museum has been proud to both continue and expand our founder’s original commitment to historical, cultural and scientific education. The Museum is in the process of developing expanded offerings for field trips and activities designed to serve a wide range of school-aged visitors in accordance with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ current curricular frameworks, and currently offers two major programs to groups of young visitors:
– Hammond Castle: A Museum Experience
(60-90 minutes; $5.00/student, free for educators; minimum 15 children and a maximum of 60 students per session.)
This program is a version of the Hammond Castle Museum visitor experience, but designed with the needs of a field trip in mind. The tour covers basic details of the museum’s background, architecture and collection, as well as aspects of John Hays Hammond Jr.’s biography which help to contextualize the Museum and its exhibits. Topics briefly covered include historical European architecture, the art and culture of ancient Rome and medieval and Renaissance Europe, principles of music and acoustics, and early modern science and engineering, among many others. The program includes a guided tour experience lasting approximately 30-45 minutes, but also reserves time for young visitors to split into smaller groups and explore while independently developing questions about the Museum and items in the collection, if the trip’s schedule allows.
As this is a broad overview of the Museum, it can be adjusted for practically any age level. Particularly with younger visitors, this program will include basic guided learning about how to actively experience a museum collection safely and maturely, with the hope that those visitors will develop key learning skills for further museum exploration! Hammond Castle Museum’s educational staff is also available to work closely with classroom educators to integrate this basic program with an ongoing curricular focus or particular subject area.
– Arms and Armor: Knights, Blacksmiths, and their Tools
(60-75 minutes; $225+ $9.50/each student over 30, free for educators; minimum of 25 students and a maximum of 90 students per session. Offered only in January, February, and March.)
This program uses Hammond Castle Museum’s vast collection of replica arms and armor, including varieties of swords, shields, axes, maces, spears, mail, and helmets, to paint an exciting picture not just of the development and design of historical weaponry through a fun and engaging series of demonstrations, but of the complex and often misunderstood culture and society that produced and utilized these items as tools, symbols of identity and social station, and objects of art. What was the role of a “knight” in historical Europe, and who could become one? How has our understanding of these items changed because of books, television, movies and video games? How should we imagine historical knights today? The program involves a lecture and demonstration in the Museum’s Great Hall, followed by a brief Q&A, and the opportunity to to look at (but not handle) the items up close.
This program is appropriate for visitors in 3rd grade and above, and can be adjusted to address more complex historic and cultural questions as appropriate. Please note this program does not include any small-group exploration time of areas other than the Great Hall, but the Museum is happy to accommodate that opportunity if requested. Hammond Castle Museum’s educational staff is also available to work closely with classroom educators in aligning the focus of this program with an ongoing instruction, or to develop follow up questions for students.
For more information or to book a specialty group tour, please email us at info@hammondcastle.org or call us at 978-283-2080.
