A Place for Inspiration and Learning
The Museum is closed at the moment for mechanical upgrades but will reopen soon with more to discover. Visit our past exhibitions online and enjoy the information, photos, press, and descriptions we have on file of some of our acclaimed historical, contemporary, and seasonal shows to date.
Historic Exhibits
Visit our past exhibitions online and enjoy the information, photos, press, and descriptions we have on file of some of our acclaimed historical, contemporary, and seasonal shows to date.
Making it Last: Sustainable Fashion in 19th Century America (2022)
Health, Healing & Addiction in 19th Century America (2021)
From Corsets to Suffrage: Victorian Women Trailblazers (2019)
Collecting in Victorian America: The Great Divide of the Gilded Age (2018)
Demolish or Preserve: The 1960s at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion (2016)
Wedding Traditions and Fashion from the 1860s to the 1930S (2017)
The Stairs Below: The Mansion’s Domestic Servants, 1868-1938 (2015)
The Art of Collecting: The Mansion’s Hidden Treasures (2014)
What Is It? Technologies and Discoveries of the Victorian Era (2013)
Epic Voyage: The Extraordinary Life of Titanic Survivor Helen Churchill Candee (2012)
Contemporary Art Exhibits
Through the Vestibule and just off the Entrance Hall, the Billiards Room hosts the Museum’s Contemporary Art Exhibits. Each exhibit is curated and features primarily emerging and established artists living and working in the tri-state area.
Fragments of Light, Impressions of Color (2022)
Socially Distant Art: Creativity in Lockdown (2021)
About Women (2020)
The Trained Eye: The Art of Railways and Stations (2019)
Historic Grounds and Modern Gardens (2019)
The Artist’s View: Traveling the Merritt Parkway (2018)
Gilded Age Redux (2017)
Eco Visions (2017)
Right Angle Bliss (2017)
Coney Island: Visions from the Boardwalk (2016)
The Westport Artist Collective Explores the Revolutionary Sixties (2016)
Endangered & Re-envisioned: Iconic Landmarks and Interiors (2016)
Lenticular Views (2015)
Watercolors by artist Mimi Adams Findlay (2014)
Two Connecticut Painters: From Impressionism to Regionalism (2014)
Steampunk: Nature & Machine (2013)
Places and Politics (2012)
Seasonal Exhibits
Beloved by the community, the Museum’s Halloween and Holiday Exhibits bring out the inquisitive child in everyone who visits. The last two weeks of October, the Mansion is transformed into a haunted house, especially spooky for tours at night. The roots of traditional American Christmas celebrations began during the Victorian-era at the time the Mansion was built. The Museum not only decks the halls in holiday decor, it lets visitors experience the season within this historical context.
WINNER OF THE 2020, 2021, and 2022 USA TODAY’S “10 BEST HISTORIC HOLIDAY TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES”
Holiday Enchantment at the Mansion (2022)
Gilded Age Holiday Splendor at the Mansion (2021)
Christmas Playtime at the Mansion (2020)
The Mansion’s Holiday Exhibit (2019)
A Magical Christmas Eve at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum (2018)
A Magnificent Victorian Holiday at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum (2017)
Holiday Splendor at the Mansion: Christmas and New Year’s Celebrations (2016)
Holiday Grandeur: The Mansion’s Toys and Trains Story (2015)
A Magnificent Victorian Holiday at the Mansion: Splendor and Tradition through the Decades (2014)
A Grand Display of Holiday Traditions: Victorian Era Presents and Decorations (2013)
A Grand Holiday at the Mansion: From Victorian to Modern (2012)
