Over the past 30 years, HHT has embarked upon a wide array of special initiatives related to education, the arts, innovation, and archaeology. 

Contemporary Art Partnerships

Contemporary art within an historic house setting provides unexpected juxtaposition, inviting thought, encouraging perspective, and enhancing historic interpretation. From poetry and performance art to painting and touchable sculpture, HHT’s Contemporary Art Partnerships program brought site-specific contemporary art installations and experiences to our member houses. These innovative and inclusive experiences attracted new audiences and reflected on the diversity of the communities in which our partner sites are located. View more information on selected installations by clicking here.

Re-imagining Historic House Museums

Historic sites are not static antiquities but rather living institutions uniquely poised to address current issues while retaining their connections to the past. HHT has spearheaded several innovative projects that responded to deep-rooted issues at historic houses by studying and implementing new methods of historic house museum stewardship and operation. Click the following links to learn more about two recent examples, LatimerNOW and shatterCABINET.

Archaeology

A substantial amount of archaeology has taken place at HHT’s 23 partner houses, which provides a richly informative history of the sites and sheds light on the region’s pre-Colonial Native American populations. In 2010, HHT created a report that organized all information and documentation pertaining to archaeology at the houses. This report can be accessed by clicking here. 

Archaeological finds from several house sites are included in the NYC Archaeological Repository, a project of the Archaeology Department of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. Opened in 2014, the Repository curates the City’s archaeological collections and makes them accessible to archaeologists, researchers, teachers, students, and the public. The Repository currently houses hundreds of thousands of artifacts from over 32 sites throughout New York City, including the pieces of sheet mica seen below. Thought to be Native American, these were unearthed in Pelham Bay Park near the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum.