Fruitlands Museum, Harvard’s iconic collection of historical buildings set on 210 acres of land adjacent to Prospect Hill Road, announced Tuesday that it will merge its operations with those of the Trustees of Reservations, a statewide organization founded in 1891. The Trustees of Reservations’ mission statement is “to save and share places of exceptional natural, cultural, and ecological significance.”
The announcement came in a letter emailed to Fruitlands members Tuesday, Feb. 16, by museum Executive Director Wyona Lynch-McWhite. “Our agreement provides stronger financial stability for the Museum for its long-term growth and expansion,” she wrote. The two organizations will begin to merge operations this year, she said, with integration expected to be complete by 2017.
In a Wednesday, Feb. 17, press release, Barbara Erickson, president and CEO of the Trustees, said her organization was honored to welcome Fruitlands Museum as a Trustees property. “We care for special places forever so we don’t enter into these kinds of agreements lightly,” she wrote. “The connection between Fruitlands Museum and other Trustees properties, both in geography and cultural significance, provides a synergy that we hope will ultimately bring more people to love, to know about, and to cherish this iconic place.”
In her email to members, Lynch-McWhite said that donations, program and admission fees, and membership dues collected by Fruitlands would remain part of the museum’s operating budget during and after integration with the Trustees. Memberships would be honored through their expiration dates, she wrote, after which museum members would be invited to join the Trustees. “In the meantime,” she continued, “all of your benefits will remain the same and we hope you will continue to support Fruitlands Museum.”
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A Harvard legacy
Fruitlands Museum began in 1914, when Clara Endicott Sears, a wealthy Bostonian who had built a summer home at the summit of Prospect Hill in Harvard, opened the renovated farmhouse where transcendentalist and educator Bronson Alcott had brought his family in 1843. Over three decades, Miss Sears went on to create Fruitlands Museum, which grew to include a museum of Native American art and artifacts, a Shaker collection, and an art museum of 250 American vernacular portraits and over 100 Hudson River School landscapes. The museum complex became a National Register Historic District in 1997.
The Trustees of Reservations is Massachusetts’ largest conservation and preservation organization, overseeing 114 properties that span, according to its website, more than 26,000 acres—from working farms, landscaped and urban gardens, and community parks, to barrier beaches, forests, campgrounds, inns, and historic sites. The nearest Trustees site is FarandNear Farm which recently opened in Shirley.
“Fruitlands Museum and the Trustees’ missions are so well aligned in our desire to build connections between nature, art, and culture among people of all ages and to provide opportunities for lifelong learning and engagement,” said Fruitlands Museum Board of Directors Chairwoman Marie LeBlanc in a statement included with the announcement posted at the Trustees website. “We are confident that the Trustees will provide the platform Fruitlands Museum needs to continue to grow, care for, and share its important legacy and collections for many years to come.”
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