Arrowhead Opens Season with Old Wagons and New Books
The Pittsfield farm where Herman Melville wrote "Moby-Dick" kicks off summer with a free community day.
Saturday, May 16, 11am–4pm | Pittsfield, MA | Free
Arrowhead, the Pittsfield farmhouse where Herman Melville wrote "Moby-Dick" and lived for thirteen years, opens for its summer season on May 16 with a free public day that includes horse-drawn wagon rides to a new book launch.
The afternoon starts with wagon rides from 11am to 2pm, courtesy of Four Seasons Stables in Lanesboro. Pittsfield's Penny Arcade Press sets up from 1 to 3pm to demonstrate hand-pulled silkscreen printing with water-based inks, with prints available for purchase in the museum shop. At 2pm there's a children's story hour featuring two newly published picture books drawn from Melville's work: Call Me Moby by Lars Kenseth and Bartleby by Matt Phelan.
The day closes at 4pm with a book launch and signing for Herman Melville in the Berkshires by John Dickson, a historian, chair of the Pittsfield Historical Commission, and longtime BCHS volunteer. The book traces the connections between Melville's writing and the Berkshire landscape that shaped it — the mountains, rivers, and forests he wandered on foot and horseback, which turn up throughout his fiction. Melville finished "Moby-Dick" in his first year at Arrowhead, writing in a study with a view of Mount Greylock.
Guided house tours are available throughout the day; tickets for those are required and can be reserved in advance.
Arrowhead, 780 Holmes Rd., Pittsfield, MA. Reserve house tour tickets at berkshirehistory.org.
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After a decade of writing for RI (along with many other publications and organizations) Jamie took over as editor in 2025. He has a masters in journalism from NYU, a wonderful wife, two kids and a Carolina dog named Zelda.
