Library patron Galen Milewski views the Athenaeum’s recently installed Melville Trail Plaque, honoring our Melville Room, which houses the largest collection of Melville family personal memorabilia in the world. The intent of the Melville Trail is to deepen the public’s understanding of Herman Melville’s connection to and love of many places in Berkshire County. As a start, four of his most beloved places now host permanent interpretative panels: Arrowhead; Pontoosuc Lake; the Berkshire Athenaeum; and Monument Mountain.
The Athenaeum’s plaque was designed by Local History Librarian Kathleen Reilly, with the assistance of Donna Kittridge and Marianna Poutasse. All of the four currently installed plaques were printed by W J Blueprints & and Digital Graphics of Pittsfield.
Included on the trail will be more eight more places that Melville loved: Pittsfield’s Park Square; Hancock Shaker Village; Crane Museum of Papermaking; Balance Rock; Lenox Courthouse; Tanglewood/Hawthorne Cottage; October Mountain; and Mount Greylock. Although Melville’s work belongs to the world, it was the Berkshires that inspired him.
The Melville Trail is a collaborative project funded in part by Housatonic Heritage; partnered with Berkshire Historical Society at Arrowhead; the City of Pittsfield; the Berkshire Athenaeum; and The Trustees of Reservations.
A web version of the Melville Trail is in development; for further information or to request a paper brochure contact curator@berkshirehistory.org
Filed under: local history department Tagged: | call me melville, Herman Melville, local author, local history
