Once the Continental Congress dissolved "all political connection" between the 13 former colonies and Great Britain in 1776, the states immediately began framing new constitutions.
The Society of the Cincinnati was founded in May 1783 at the close of the Revolutionary War by the officers of the Continental Army and some of the French officers who fought on the American side.
Justin Hitchcock (1752-1822) of Granville, Massachusetts, was 14 years old when he was indentured in 1766 (1752-1822) to Moses Church of Springfield, Massachusetts, to learn the "art and mystery" of hatmaking.
Joseph Stebbins, Jr., was a Colonel in the militia during the Revolutionary War and was, in 1787, serving as keeper of the arms used and confiscated in Deerfield during Shays' Rebellion.
This is the gravestone of Mary Harvey of Deerfield, who died in childbirth in 1785. She was related by birth and marriage to several Regulators, although her husband was not active in the Regulation that became known as Shays' Rebellion.
A neck yoke made carrying buckets full of heavy water, milk, or other liquids easier by balancing the load and distributing it onto the shoulders of the bearer.
John Williams of Deerfield was a merchant as well as a lawyer. These pages from one of his surviving account book record financial transactions between Williams and several of his customers.
This Windsor-style chair, with writing arm, was a kind most often owned by lawyers and ministers, men who regularly devoted time to writing and correspondence.