Past Events
MAGICAL FULL MOON FELT PAINTING FOR LUNAR NEW YEAR!
Wednesday, February 18, 6:30 – 8:00PM
Create a gorgeous wool painting of a full moon rising over a wintry wood. In honor of Lunar New Year, let’s celebrate the magic of the moon!
Learn the art of painting with wool! Join fiber artist Rachel Benson of The Fiber Web to learn the art of felting while creating a magical full moon night scene in honor of the Lunar New Year. In this workshop, you will be guided step by step to learn techniques to create a flat scene using colored sheep’s wool. All levels welcome and all materials provided! NO experience necessary.
Appropriate for ages 14 and up.
$35 general admission (includes materials and snacks)
Instructor Rachel Benson is a fiber artist working primarily with needle felting and other media to create whimsical images of nature, both realistic and abstract. Rachel studied Fine Arts and Technical Theater in college and is currently a freelance artist and art teacher. She shares her love of art through teaching, commissions, and selling her work at craft fairs and galleries. She is a juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, a member of the Princeton Arts Society and the Nashoba Valley Artists Guild. She has been teaching art classes for the last 10 years in her own private business, The Fiber Web along with the following venues: Fivesparks, Hollis Artspace, Periwinkle Glassworks, as well as workshops at many public libraries and community centers. She is passionate about creating and encouraging students to experiment, play, invent, and focus on the journey of art making rather than the final outcome.
DOUGLASS DAY 2026 Commemoration and Transcription Project
Friday, February 13, 2026, 12:00 – 3:00PM
In conjunction with national Douglass Day, the Forbes House Museum will host a transcribe-a-thon while livestreaming commemorative events.
Join the Forbes House Museum in honoring Frederick Douglass by joining in the transcribe-a-thon in our beautiful interiors. Transcribers should bring their own computer; wifi, tables, chairs, and snacks provided! FREE, BUT PLEASE RSVP.
The transcribe-a-thon will bring together thousands of participants at more than one hundred events taking place around the world. Students, teachers, and community members will help to transcribe an unprecedented collection of records from the historic Colored Conventions Movement. These materials have been digitized and made available through collaborations with the non-profit Zooniverse platform.
From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights. The Colored Conventions anticipated the rise of the NAAACP and the Civil Rights Movement.
Participants preserved the legacy of the Colored Conventions movement through the records that they kept. Delegates produced “minutes,” or transcriptions of the meetings, which include role calls and reports from various committees, including committees on civil rights, the Black press, and education, to name just a few of the topics that arose at conventions. We also know about Colored Conventions through newspaper articles that reported on them. Minutes and newspaper articles are some of the historical documents that you will get to transcribe.
12:00 to 12:30pm | Opening Presentations
- “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
- Douglass Day program overview
- Featured Speakers
- Transcription tutorial
12:30 to 1:00pm | Transcription Activity
- Time for transcribing, readings, discussions, etc.
- We’ll leave the live stream running, but will go silent.
1:00 to 1:30pm | Singing & Reading
- Sing “Happy birthday”
- A dramatic reading of “Why Hold a Colored Convention?” by Hassan El-Amin & introductions
1:30 to 2:00pm | Transcription Activity
- Time for transcribing, readings, discussions, etc.
2:00 to 2:20pm | Community Discussion
2:20 to 2:45pm | Transcription Activity
- Time for transcribing, readings, discussions, etc.
2:45 to 3:00pm | Closing Announcements
FLOWERS AT THE FORBES
Friday, January 23, 2026 – Sunday, January 25, 2026
11:00am – 4:00 pm Friday and Saturday; 11:00am – 3:00pm Sunday
Beautiful floral designs complementing the Museum’s collection
Throughout the two floors of the Museum, intricate floral pieces designed by members of the Milton Garden Club will be displayed next to the collection item which inspired the designer! A gorgeous, colorful way to spend a wintry day, and a new way to see the Museum.
$20 general admission/ $10 FHM members. Tickets available online and at the door. Ticket holders may enter anytime during the event on the day of ticket admission.
MISTLETOE AND MUSIC 
Saturday, December 13, 2025
7:00pm – 9:00 pm
A special holiday concert with a Broadway star!
The Museum is pleased to present Bart Shatto in an intimate holiday concert sure to warm your heart and bring the holiday cheer. Singing holiday classics plus a few fun twists, Bart’s one-man show will be the perfect evening to truly start the holiday season. A dessert reception will follow, and attendees will have the opportunity to meet and chat with Bart to hear all about his experiences on the stages of Broadway!
$75 general admission/$65 members
Hailed as “a star performer,” Bart Shatto has made his mark on Broadway, televison, movies, and beyond. A member of the original Broadway casts of the Tony-nominated shows Hands on a Hardbody and The Civil War, he has also appeared on Broadway in War Paint, originated the role of Quincey Morris in Dracula, and, most significantly, starred in the iconic role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.
Television credits include guest appearances on “Murphy Brown,” NBC’s “Chicago Med,” Fox Family’s “Ghost Stories,” and “Guiding Light”. He co-stars in the feature film “Freedom” opposite Cuba Gooding Jr.
As a singer, he is a veteran member of the Gold/Platinum-selling symphonic progressive rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and is on the cast albums of Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden and Tara Tremendous.
HOLIDAY HURRAH!
Saturday, December 13, 2025
11:00am – 1:00 pm
A festive Open House to usher in the holiday season
The Museum will be dressed in its finest for the holidays! Carolers from Milton High School will be singing festive tunes, and 19th-century reenactors will provide an historic flair. Visitors can indulge in a hot chocolate bar, and youngsters (or the young at heart) can make and take home a holiday craft. Come celebrate with us!
Free to attend; please RSVP (but walk-ins are always welcome.)
Thank you to 
for sponsoring the hot chocolate bar!
