Tipple on Tuesday!

"Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink-- under any circumstances."

- Mark Twain's Notebook

Tuesday, November 22 at 6pm ET- Literary Happy Hour with TWAS THE NIGHT: The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem author Pamela McColl (In-Person)

Raise a toast to the holiday season with our new Literary Happy Hour! From 6 pm to 7 pm, we will gather in our intimate Nook Café for a wine/beer cash bar and sandwiches, salads, and snacks for sale. At 7 pm, Twas the Night author Pamela McColl joins The MTH&M’s own Rebecca Floyd in conversation.

Twas The Night – The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem?is the first cultural history to be published of the highly-celebrated poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” also known as “’Twas The Night Before Christmas."

Over two hundred images are presented in the book including artwork by Jessie Willcox Smith, N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, N.C. Wyeth, F.O.C. Darley, and the incomparable Thomas Nast. In 2022 and 2023 the poem marks two bi-centennial milestones; first read aloud by Clement Clarke Moore of New York on Christmas Eve 1822, with its print debut appearing in the Troy Sentinel newspapers of Troy, New York for December 23, 1823.

In-Person Event! Tickets: $5. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Black Friday,

Small Business Saturday, and then...

There's Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and then the main event: MUSEUM STORE SUNDAY! On November 27, holiday shoppers are encouraged to support their favorite museum by patronizing its gift shop. We hope you will visit MTH&M on Museum Store Sunday when we're pulling out all of the stops to create a unique shopping experience just for YOU!

- Complimentary sips and snacks while you shop

- 30% off everything in the store for MTH&M Members. Not a member? Become one here.

- 30% off all Mova Globes

- Special gifts with minimum purchase

- Live music in Hal Holbrook Hall

- Gilded Age Ornament-making Workshop (learn more here!)

- Our Living History Actors in The Clemens Family Christmas Special LIVE! (learn more here!)

Can't Make it to Hartford?

You can still join us for Museum Store Sunday! Visit our online store on Sunday, November 27th to receive 20% off your purchase by CLICKING HERE! Discount not valid on sale items.

Museum Store Sunday Special Events

Sunday, November 27 at 1pm - GILDED AGE ORNAMENT-MAKING WORKSHOP (In-Person Only)

In the Gilded Age, American families who celebrated Christmas made most of their decorations by hand, and the Clemens family was no exception. In this workshop, we’ll show you how to make five different Gilded Age Christmas decorations just like the ones you would have seen in this home!

$10. Recommended for ages 6 and up. All children should be accompanied by an adult. If you just want to help your child make the crafts you can select an “Adult Helper” ticket for free, but “Helper” tickets do not include a materials package.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Sunday, November 27 at 2:30pm ET - THE CLEMENS FAMILY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL - LIVE! (In-Person and Virtual)

Join our talented cast of Living History actors for a festive romp through Christmas in the 19th century. Dressed in period costume and reading from the letters and memoirs of Mark Twain, his family, his staff, and his Hartford friends, they’ll bring to life the joys and wonders of Christmases past.

In-Person Tickets: $5. Livestream Tickets: $2.50. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Coming Next

Monday, November 28 at 7pm ET - CLEMENS CONVERSATIONS: CLEMENS FAMILY CHRISTMAS AT HOME (Virtual)

“. . . how could any one individual buy, wrap up, and expedite so many presents for one single day in the year as my mother did? . . . The work began weeks before the holy day. Even so, there seemed always to be a rush at the end.”

For Sam and Livy Clemens, the best Christmases were the ones they celebrated at home in Hartford with their three daughters. Learn more about their Christmas traditions, including selecting (or making) the perfect gift and hanging the children’s stockings under the supervision of Apollinaris the cat.

This program is delivered live from inside the historic home itself, which is completely transformed for the holiday season. At the end of the presentation, you will be able to ask any questions you want about the home and family, and request our roving camera-person show you any part of the home that you want!

Streaming Ticket: $10. Free for museum members. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

In Observance of the U.N. International Day to Abolish Slavery

Two free virtual author discussions presented in collaboration with The Amistad Center for Art & Culture.

Tuesday, November 29 at 7pm ET –

THE GRIMKES: The Legacy of Slavery In an American Family with Kerri Greenidge and Dr. Erin Bartram (V)

Sarah and Angelina Grimke—the Grimke sisters—are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Their antislavery pamphlets, among the most influential of the antebellum era, are still read today. Yet retellings of their epic story have long obscured their Black relatives. In?The Grimkes, award-winning historian Kerri Greenidge presents a parallel narrative, indeed a long-overdue corrective, shifting the focus from the white abolitionist sisters to the Black Grimkes and deepening our understanding of the long struggle for racial and gender equality.

FREE Virtual Event! LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Thursday, December 1 at 7pm ET - THE COLOR OF ABOLITION and LYDIA MARIA CHILD: A Radical American Life with Linda Hirshman and Lydia Moland with Dr. dann J. Broyld (Virtual)

About THE COLOR OF ABOLITION:

In the crucial early years of the Abolition movement, the Boston branch of the cause seized upon the star power of the eloquent ex-slave Frederick Douglass to make its case for slaves’ freedom. Journalist William Lloyd Garrison?promoted emancipation while Garrison loyalist Maria Weston Chapman, known as “the Contessa,” raised money and managed Douglass’s speaking tour from her Boston townhouse. 

About LYDIA MARIA CHILD - A Radical American Life:

Best known today for the immortal poem “Over the River and through the Wood,” Lydia Maria Child had become famous at an early age for spunky self-help books and charming children’s stories. But in 1833, Child shocked her readers by publishing the first book-length argument against slavery in the United States—a book so radical in its commitment to abolition that friends abandoned her, patrons ostracized her, and her book sales plummeted.

FREE Virtual Event! LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Book Your Visit!

Plan your visit to America's Best House Museum (Forbes Magazine, 2021) by CLICKING HERE.

Upcoming Events

V = Virtual Event; IP = In-Person Event

November 22. -Literary Happy Hour: Twas the Night - The Art and History of the Classic Poem with Pamela McColl (IP)

November 27 - Museum Store Sunday (IP)

November 27 - Gilded Age Ornament-Making Workshop (IP)

November 27 - The Clemens Family Christmas Special LIVE! (IP & V)

November 28 - Clemens Conversations: A Clemens Family Christmas at Home (V)

November 29 - Amistad Center & MTH&M present The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family with Kerri K. Greenidge (V)

December 1 - Amistad Center & MTH&M present Radical Lives: Four Abolitionists with Linda Hirshman and Lydia Moland (V)

December 5 - Clemens Conversations: Christmas Charity in the Gilded Age (V)

December 6 - Christmas Past: The Fascinating Stories of Our Favorite Holiday's Traditions with Brian Earl (V)

December 7 - The Trouble Begins at Home: Susy Clemens' Final Years (V)

December 8 - Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with RJ Young (V)

December 11 - Gilded Age Ornament-Making Workshop (IP)

December 11 - The Clemens Family Christmas Special LIVE! (IP & V)

December 12 - Clemens Conversations: Clemens Christmases Abroad and Apart (V)

December 13 - The Magi: Who They Were, How They've Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate with Eric Vanden Eykel (V)

December 15 - Peniel E. Joseph on The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century (V)

December 16 & 17 - Get a Clue Murder-Mystery Tour - The Christmas Edition! (IP)

December 19 - Clemens Conversations: Decking the Halls & Trimming the Tree (V)

January 17 - The Status Revolution: The Improbable Story of How the Lowbrow Became the Highbrow with Chuck Thompson (V)

January 19 - One Billion Years: My Escape from a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology with Mike Rinder (V)

More to be announced soon!

To see all event information and registration, CLICK HERE.

To preorder books for our upcoming events, CLICK HERE. Signed books will be mailed after the event. Please note that we cannot ship outside of the U.S. at this time.

Your donation to The Mark Twain House & Museum helps us meet our mission to preserve the home and legacy of Mark Twain. Thank you for your generosity!

Author programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are sponsored by Connecticut Public Broadcasting and the Wish You Well Foundation. Virtual author programs are supported by Suzanne Hopgood in the memory of former MTH&M Trustee Frank Lord.

Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from CT Humanities; the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign; The Hartford; The Mark Twain Foundation; The National Endowment for the Humanities; and Travelers.