American Stories: Rebels and Revolutionaries of the Berkshires

Every Wednesday in July; Choose from 11 am or 5:30 pm sessions
One person:
Member: $40 | Non-Member: $45
Two people:
Member: $65 | Non-Member: $70
Become a member at the Gallery Guild or Artist Forum levels, and get free admission to this series.

A Berkshire History Course
This summer when America is celebrating its 250th anniversary, join us for this historical and civic education program to learn how the Berkshires played a pivotal role in the founding of our nation.
American Stories: Rebels and Revolutionaries of the Berkshires examines the history of the American Revolution and its reverberating echoes in the region, nation, and world by highlighting the fascinating but complicated biographies of Berkshire County residents who impacted American history and culture from the late eighteenth century onward.
Each class will begin in the galleries of Norman Rockwell Museum’s American Stories: Revolution to Rockwell with a discussion of a work on view that connects to the theme of that day’s class.
Course Instructor: Justin F. Jackson is a lecturer and visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Session Topic:
“Harlem On My Mind”: Black Freedom Struggles in the Berkshires, from Agrippa Hull and Elizabeth Freeman to Samuel Harrison and W.E.B. Du Bois

About Justin F. Jackson
Justin F. Jackson is a lecturer and visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he teaches US history, and the history of Boston and Massachusetts. The Berkshire Eagle is publishing his monthly column, “Revolution: Berkshires,” on the American Revolution’s local history in the run-up to the semi-sesquicentennial in July 2026. A scholar of US foreign relations history, he is author of The Work of Empire: War, Occupation, and the Making of American Colonialism in Cuba and the Philippines (University of North Carolina Press, 2025). His next book, “Cherry Cottage: Between Ruin and Restoration, America’s History Retold through a Berkshire Home,” explores how a preserved Stockbridge home produced Americans’ sense of the past, and nation, through place.