Events Calendar

The Society hosts a series of programs throughout the year, with new ones being added to the schedule all the time. Fee’s vary depending on the program, and discounts are provided for members of the society.

Programs are held in person unless otherwise specified, and locations will vary between the Sudbury Historical Society History Center & Museum and Town Hall.

To purchase tickets for Sudbury Historical Society events on Eventbrite please visit our Sudbury Historical Society's page.

Next Events

Wednesday September 24, 2025 12:00 - 2:30PM

What Would Henry Do? A Nature Program for Kids Inspired by Henry David Thoreau

At the Sudbury History Center and Museum.

The Sudbury History Center and Museum, in partnership with Athina Education, presents "What Would Henry Do?", a nature program for kids inspired by Henry David Thoreau.

During this early-release Wednesday program, kids will enjoy a story about Henry David Thoreau, be introduced to a few items from the Sudbury Historical Society collections, enjoy a walk around the museum, and make a pressed flower bookmark.

For children ages seven and up. FREE (space is limited to 15).

For more details and registration, visit: Eventbrite.

Saturday October 4, 2025 1:00 - 4:00PM

Sudbury Appraisal Day

At the Sudbury History Center and Museum.

Join us at the Sudbury History Center and Museum to get your personal treasures and antiques appraised by professional appraisers from Kaminski Auctions! $25 for three items or $10 per item.

No jewelry or furniture please. All proceeds benefit the Sudbury Historical Society.

Audience admission is FREE. Pay at the door or register in advance here: Eventbrite.

Thursday October 23, 2025 6:30PM

Sudbury Treasure Map with Town Historian, Jan C. Hardenbergh

At the Sudbury History Center and Museum.

The Sudbury Historical Society (SHS) recently acquired a treasure of a map: the oldest known comprehensive map of Sudbury from circa 1795! Learn more about this important piece of local history by mapmaker Matthias Mossman (1749-1819) from Town Historian, Jan C. Hardenbergh, at our October 23rd evening lecture.

SHS seeks to fundraise $4,000 to restore and preserve this map for generations to come. YOU can help us by donating in-person, by mail, or via our website.

For more details and registration, visit: Eventbrite.

Open Now

New Exhibits: Sudbury's Changing Landscape Part 2 and Celebrating 250 Years of Artifacts

In our galleries now.

We have two new exhibits on display in our galleries. 'Celebrating 250 Years of Artifacts' is in the Jonathan Baggott Gallery and 'Sudbury's Changing Landscape Part 2' is in the Sudbury Foundation Gallery.

Funding for 'Sudbury's Changing Landscape' provided by the Sudbury Cultural Council and Mass Humanities.

Online Exhibit

Recent Events

Sunday October 6, 2024 2:30PM

Third Annual Golf Tournament

Join us October 6, 2024 at Wayland Country Club for our Annual Golf Tournament to benefit the Sudbury History Center & Museum! This year we are changing things up a bit, the tournament will be 9 holes, and there will be a party/dinner open to all afterwards!

Entry Fee: $85 per person for golf. Singles/Doubles will be paired by the committee. Includes 9 holes of golf, cart, dinner and the chance to win prizes. Dinner tickets are $30 to join us after the golf has finished. This will be an opportunity to socialize, and to win some raffle prizes.

We'll take the course (scramble format) starting at 3PM (sign in is at 2:30PM). Drinks will start at 5PM, the meal served at 5:30PM, and raffle prizes called at 7PM.

Wednesday October 9, 2024 1:00 - 2:30PM

Pumpkin Painting

At the Sudbury Historical Society History Museum.

Join the Sudbury Historical Society for an afternoon of pumpkin painting! Wednesday October 9th, 1-2:30 PM at the Sudbury Historical Society History Museum.

Pumpkins provided. Open to ages 2 and up! First come first served, free for everyone!

Saturday October 26, 2024 4:00PM

Concert with Musicians of the Old Post Road: Risky Business

Join us on October 26th at First Parish for our joint concert with Musicians of the Old Post Road.

Risky Business will focus on the incredible innovations of composers from the early and late German Baroque. Works by early German Baroque composers include a trio sonata by Dietrich Buxtehude, Composer Johann Jakob Walther, one of the most significant German violinists of the 17th century, will also be featured. These pieces will be juxtaposed with works by equally inventive composers of the very late German Baroque who were pushing the envelope within their own dramatic styles. These including a trio sonata by Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, a trio sonata by the brilliant composer Christoph Graupner, an emotionally-charged flute sonata by Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht, and a colorful quintet by Carl Heinrich Graun. Excitingly, the quintet by Graun was only recently rediscovered, and this concert will likely offer the modern-day premiere of this work.

Musicians for these concerts, all of whom will play on period instruments, include flutist Suzanne Stumpf, violinist and violist Sarah Darling, violinist Jesse Irons, cellist Daniel Ryan, and harpsichordist Kelly Savage.

Monday November 11, 2024 10:00AM

Sudbury Road Race

Join us for the Sudbury Road Race which includes a 5-kilometer race (walkers welcome) and a 1-mile fun run (all ages welcome). Both races begin and end at Ephraim Curtis Middle School, 22 Pratts Mill Rd. Sudbury, Massachusetts. The fun run begins at 10am, with the 5k beginning at 10:30am.

This event is a fundraiser for the Sudbury Historical Society History Center and Museum. Opening in July 2021, The Sudbury Historical Society has finished its most ambitious project. The creation of the Sudbury History Center and Museum in the town-owned c1730 Loring Parsonage in Sudbury’s Town Center has been a long time coming. The project has revitalized a historic town asset. It allows the SHS to safely store and exhibit the SHS’s collections, accommodate growing membership and volunteer corps, facilitate scholarly research, and provide a fully accessible historical resource for Sudbury’s residents and tourists.

The nonprofit SHS is an active membership-based organization dedicated to collecting and preserving Sudbury’s historical records, promoting the study of local history, and connecting people to Sudbury’s traditions through educational programming and community engagement. With a vibrant History Center, we can now achieve our mission more easily. Our vision for the town-owned Loring Parsonage was to create an inclusive, active, multifunctional facility for all ages. We are so pleased to have had the opportunity to build something outstanding for Sudbury.

Price: 1 mile fun run $15.00. 5k $25.00 early bird thru 10/15/24. $30 after 10/15/24 until online registration closes 11/9/23 at 11:59 pm. Race day registration $35.00. Free t-shirt for the first 150 5k participants! All kids running in the 1 mile will receive a large sticker 'medal' for their achievement. Veterans also receive a $5.00 discount on all pricing-please use the special pricing code "Vet23".

Medals will be given to the top 3 finishers in each race, men, and women respectively.

Saturday December 7, 2024 11:00AM - 2:00PM

Annual Sudbury Holiday Village

Join us for the Annual Sudbury Holiday Village! The Sudbury Historical Society Museum will be open from 10-4, with crafts for kids, shopping for gifts, and wonderful exhibits about Sudbury.

Details Sudbury Holliday Village 20244.

Thursday February 6, 2025 6:30PM

Enslavement in the Puritan Village, A Book Talk by Jane Sciacca

Join us for a book talk by Jane Sciacca on Thursday February 6th at the Sudbury Historical Society Museum.

Jane Sciacca, a researcher dedicated to the history of enslaved individuals in Sudbury and its surrounding towns, has masterfully compiled her extensive research into a captivating new book titled “Enslavement in the Puritan Village.” This book offers illuminating stories about the lives of enslaved people from Sudbury’s past.

The book is available in the Sudbury Historical Society's 01776 Gift Shop for $24.99 at the time of the talk. Discount applied for SHS members!

Sunday March 16, 2025 4:00PM

Presentation: Sudbury History Before the Revolution

At the Martha Mary Chapel on the Wayside Inn grounds, 35 Dutton Rd. Sudbury

Join us for a presentation by Jane Sciacca on Sunday March 16 at the Martha Mary Chapel on the Wayside Inn grounds.

On April 19, 1775 more than 300 men from Sudbury marched off to Concord to confront British troops. What led to their brave deeds that day? What about those left behind? Meet the men and women of 1775 Sudbury as they transition from proud Englishmen to patriotic American citizens.

Jane Sciacca is an author and a former National Park Service Ranger at Minutman and Boston National Parks, and the Longfellow National Historical Site.

Sponsored by the Wayland Museum and Historical Society, and the Sudbury Historical Society.

Thursday June 26, 2025 6:30 PM

Maria von Brincken: Pollinating Meadow Gardens: Layout, Choice Plants, and Combinations

At the Sudbury History Center and Museum and online.

Join us at the Sudbury History Center and Museum on Thursday, June 26th, at 6:30pm for the kick-off of our "Sudbury's Changing Land" lecture series! In tandem with our large exhibit of the same title, the series is provided thanks to a generous grant from the Mass Cultural Council.

We look forward to welcoming Maria von Brincken—principal of Maria von Brincken Landscape Garden Design—who is a local award-winning certified designer celebrating over thirty years in professional practice. Maria specializes in landscape plans, educational lectures, and coaching to create beautiful spaces and colorful flower gardens.

Maria will lend us her expertise on wilding your perennial gardens. This lecture will explore plants that attract beneficial pollinators to help our bird populations feed their young and using native plants in an ornamental way to create dynamic and stunning natural-looking gardens. Layout techniques that echo the way plant communities intermingle and make your flowering-planned meadow garden look cohesive and natural will all be part of an exciting discussion.

Thursday July 17, 2025 6:30 PM

Annual Meeting with Alex Krieger: The Small Town as an American Ideal - At Times

At the Sudbury History Center and Museum and online.

Join us at our annual meeting for a lecture by Prof. Alex Krieger of Harvard University on July 17th.

A common refrain is that Americans dislike cities, favoring places at some distance from the buzz and complexities of urban life like Sudbury, Massachusetts. But what if Americans have instead been intrigued by cities of their imagination, rather than those at their feet? The first European settlers saw America as a paradise regained. The continent seemed to offer a God-given opportunity to start again and build the perfect community. Those messianic days are gone, but as Prof. Alex Krieger argues in his book, City on a Hill, any attempt at understanding how the country has developed must first recognize the persistent and dramatic consequences of utopian dreaming. Even as ideals have changed, idealism itself has for better and worse shaped our world of bricks and mortar, macadam, parks, and farmland. In this lecture, Prof. Krieger will explore this uniquely American story from the Pilgrims to the “smart city” and will deliver a striking new history of our built environment. Alex Krieger is Professor in Practice of Urban Design Emeritus at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he has been honored repeatedly as one of its most outstanding teachers. He is also Consulting Principal at NBBJ, a global firm offering services in architecture, urban design, and planning. Prof. Krieger is a frequent advisor to mayors and their planning staffs, and has served on a number of national and regional boards and commissions, including the United States Commission of Fine Arts. Prof. Krieger will sign copies of his book, City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present, which will be available for purchase in the Sudbury Historical Society Gift Shop.

Thursday August 14, 2025 6:30 PM

A Botanical Exploration Along the Sudbury River with Neela de Zoysa

At the Sudbury History Center and Museum.

Join us for a lecture on the Sudbury River by local botanist Neela de Zoysa on August 14th!

Neela will introduce us to the signature ferns, shrubs, trees, and wildflowers of these riverine habitats along the important Sudbury River, which forms much of the eastern boundary of the Town of Sudbury. From blueberries to buttonbushes, from dogwoods to willows, and everything in between, Neela will guide us on this fascinating glimpse into the natural landscape of Sudbury, as well as touching on the Atlantic Cedar Swamps of Westborough and its merging with the Assabet River to form the Concord River as it flows into the mighty Merrimack River in Lowell.

With over forty years of experience, Neela has explored the botany and ecology of the Sudbury area for two decades. She is also a teacher of native New England plants for the Native Plant Trust, Sudbury Valley Trustees, and several area colleges. Neela also serves on the Board of the Friends of the Assabet River and as a Councilor for the New England Botanical Society.