Friends of Montpelier

The General Henry Knox Museum preserves and make accessible to the public an accurate and significant 1930's reconstruction of Henry Knox's late eighteenth century, nineteen-room mansion. Knox, Washington's Chief of Artillery in the American Revolution and the country's first Secretary of War, retired to the province of Maine to develop the Waldo Patent (576,000acres extending from Belfast to Nobleboro). The museum is furnished with a collection of over 1,300 Federal Period objects, a significant percentage of which graced the original mansion. The collection includes many important pieces of early American furniture and silver, Chinese export porcelain, portraits by noted American artists and late eighteenth century textiles. The museum is open for tours from Memorial Day weekend to Columbus Day weekend, and until mid-December and from late April by appointment.

Education is central to the General Henry Knox Museum's mission. Every summer it sponsors a two week professional development program for teachers of history featuring noted scholars and experts in the fields of history and education. The museum also distributes, at no cost to schools in the original Waldo Patent, kits with books, activities, and other teaching resources that deal with Knox and Colonial Period/Federal Period life. Montpelier is also a contributing partner to the Maine Memory Network, a collaborative digital museum through which Montpelier's collections are available on the internet to school children and other researchers.

The Museum maintains an extensive collection of primary and secondary resources of use to researchers interested in Henry Knox, the American Revolution and Knox's development of midcoast Maine. Chief among these resources is a significant collection of Knox papers on microfilm (over 80 rolls of microfilm).

The museum connects with the community and summer visitors by sponsoring a steadily increasing number of programs and classes for adults and children at the museum, and in conjunction with other educational, cultural and arts organizations. Activities include a Revolutionary War encampment, eighteenth century tool demonstrations, lecture series, concerts, colonial games and various classes.