By Laurie O’Neill – [email protected]
The votes are in: The Concord Museum is the best small-town museum in the U.S.
A USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Award program panel of experts nominated 20 museums this winter, and voters selected the top 10. Concord finished first.
The honor “is especially meaningful as we prepare to mark the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution this April with new exhibitions and experiences that bring history to life,” says Lisa Krassner, the museum’s executive director.
“We are deeply grateful to all who voted and look forward to celebrating the historic milestone with you,” she adds. “We couldn’t have done it without your enthusiastic support.”
An hour-by-hour account
The museum houses one of the largest and most significant collections of objects directly linked to the events of April 19, 1775, including an original lantern used as a signal in the belfry of the Old North Church in Boston on the night of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride. Its exhibits provide an hour-by-hour account of the events of April 18 and 19.
The 10Best Awards program highlights destinations nationwide and worldwide. Voters then decide which end up in the top 10.
The Concord Museum is the only New England museum that made this list. The others are in Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas (two museums), and Virginia.
USA Today’s announcement reads: “The town of Concord, Massachusetts, played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War, and in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.”
It “presents the cultural, political, environmental, and literary history of the town through artifacts from Concord and the surrounding land. The museum’s collection, parts of which are centuries old, includes paintings, tools and instruments, furniture, maps, and clothing.”
