Stamford Museum & Nature Center

The Henri Bendel Mansion

Built in the late 1920s by architect Perry Barker, the Bendel Mansion was Henri Willis Bendel’s homage to the classical elegance of a British manor house. Using two Tudor mansions located in Maidenhead, England as inspiration, Barker built the epitome of the American "castle" of the time for his client. The house is on a hill overlooking the lake and has lead-framed glass windows, half-timbered walls, gargoyles, arching staircases, slate roofs, and multiple chimneys.[1] Today, the Bendel Mansion functions as a gallery and museum space and is open to the public.

Art education at SM&NC stretches back to its days at Courtland Park where local artists were exhibited. Art classes for all ages were introduced. The move to the Bendel Estate attracted more donors who helped build the museum's current collection, starting with the 1956 gift of a John Singer Sargent portrait and the 1961 donation of the Schulman twentieth-century American art collection. In June 1973, an enlarged and modernized art gallery opened in the main building, allowing for the growth of permanent collections as well as exhibitions featuring selections from collections, as well as works from local art organizations.

Today, the museum focuses on five main areas: the natural history of New England, American art, Native American art and culture, American history and culture, and farming implements. Notable items in the SM&NC permanent collections include totem poles from a World's fair, telescopes, outdoor sculptures, farm tools, Native American artifacts, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí prints, vintage local pedal cars, antique Yale & Towne keys and locks, and works by Stamford artists Gutzon Borglum and Reuben Nakian.

Hecksher Farm

The Hecksher Farm is a 10-acre (40,000 m²) working farm which references New England's rural heritage through recreational and educational activities. Its pastoral backdrop is dotted with barns, a maple sugar house, organic vegetable garden, open pastures, and dozens of farm animals. Since its first grant in 1955 from the Heckscher Foundation for Children Grant, the farm has grown from a small dairy farm to include a chicken coop, pig pen, larger pastures, shelters, and many heritage breeds of farm animals including non-indigenous llamas, alpacas, and burros. Visitors are encouraged to experience rural life by observing the wildlife and staff who carry out daily chores to keep the farm running smoothly.

Farm and wildlife were introduced to SM&NC while still at its Courtland Park location. A small farmyard containing a miniature barn was home to a lamb, a young goat, bantams, a hen and rooster, and numerous rabbits. Many orphaned or injured animals were brought to the museum where they were cared for by Junior Curators, a group of students who were studying in the nature and wildlife conservation classes. Before long, they developed a small wildlife area including an American bald eagle, a golden eagle, a fox, opossum, skunks, squirrels, and woodchucks. The Junior Curators program still exists at the SM&NC.

the Museum at Courtland Park

The move to the Museum's Scofieldtown Road location in 1955 brought with it the opportunity to build a larger model farmyard and barn which could accommodate more wildlife. A donation from the Hecksher Foundation for Children funded the building of the red barn and silo which became familiar to thousands of visitors. Over the next 20 years, the Hecksher Farm expanded to include wildlife exhibits including foxes, porcupines, a sheep shelter, chicken coop, raccoons, woodchucks, and birds of prey, as well as a medical facility to ensure proper care of the animals.

In the spring of 1977, the Board of Directors introduced a new initiative to create a period farm typical of those in Southern New England during the 19th century. The City of Stamford was quickly turning from a quiet suburban community into a corporate center. Small farms in the area were rapidly disappearing as industry and housing gobbled up the land.

Over the next 5 years, projects developed at a rapid pace. Land was cleared to create pastures, colonial fencing was installed, and a magnificent historic Cheshire barn, circa 1750, was moved from Cheshire, Connecticut and reassembled at the farm on a hand-laid stone foundation. The farm became home to animals typical of the era and area: oxen, sheep, cows, pigs, goats, and chickens now roam the farm.

At the Hecksher Farm, visitors can encounter farm life first-hand. As the farm has grown, annual programs were created such as Sheep-to-Shawl Day, Maple Sugaring, Ice Harvesting, Spring on the Farm, and Harvest Day.

The Overbrook Nature Center is the focal point of the SM&NC's nature and educational programs. It contains an interactive exhibit area with small local animals and “Nature’s Classroom,” a classroom for young student groups. Behind the Overbrook building are miles of walking trails.

Winding through 80 acres of the museum's property, the trails are diverse and abundant with wildlife. Teeming vernal pools, glacial erratic boulders, mature forests, and maintained woodland meadows are found throughout the area. The trails connect with the 88-acre Bartlett Arboretum on the north end of the museum's property.

Otters Edie and Bert

In 2006, the universally-accessible Wheels in the Woods Trail #7 was added along Poorhouse Brook, allowing handicap access to the SM&NC trails.

The Edith and Robert Graham Otter Pond is the home of the SM&NC's resident river otters [2]

SM&NC's Observatory

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center has a four-story observatory which houses a 22-inch (560 mm) reflecting telescope and is used for research (primarily of binary star systems) by the Fairfield County Astronomical Society (FCAS).

The Museum's astronomical history began in 1941 when the Fairfield County Astronomical Society was formed. Members would bring their telescopes and set them up on the steps of the old Town Hall. In Courtland Park, a planetarium was constructed in one end of the lecture hall by building a dome which could be raised and lowered for planetarium shows.

This was one of the first Armand Spitz planetariums. Concerned that the only planetariums then available were so expensive that few institutions could have them and few people would live near enough to visit, in 1947 Spitz completed design work on a very inexpensive planetarium model. The main problem, he discovered, was that creating a globe for stellar projection was very complex and expensive. Following a suggestion by Albert Einstein, Spitz used a dodecahedron as the "globe" equivalent for his star projector.

Following a demonstration at an astronomical conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Spitz received considerable publicity, and began marketing his Model A planetarium for $500. These were sold to the various American military academies, small museums, schools, and even to King Farouk of Egypt.

Within a few years, Spitz introduced the model A-1, which incorporated the Sun, Moon, and five naked eye planets, still using the dodecahedron shape for the star projector. Later a model A-2 came out, projecting more stars (the model A only gave stars brighter than magnitude 4.3). At present no record has been found establishing which model SM&NC purchased.

After moving to Scofieldtown Road, an open courtyard of the main building was enclosed to build the new planetarium.

With a keen interest in astronomy for a facility well-suited to study the sky, Mr. & Mrs. Frank Altschul contributed the funds to construct an observatory on the property, which was completed in 1960. Materials were donated by local corporations, and the telescope was built by volunteers and the Fairfield County Astronomical Society. The largest telescope in the East available for public viewing was dedicated on June 13, 1965.

In 2007, the SM&NC entered into partnership with Animal Embassy. Founded by local naturalist Chris Evers, Animal Embassy has been providing children and adults the opportunity to interact with creatures and their natural habitats for many years. The Animal Embassy Building, onsite and open to the public at SM&NC, provides dedicated space for housing, feeding, and caring for Animal Embassy's collection of non-releasable exotic animal ambassadors. In 2014, the partnership with Animal Embassy ended due to the museum's program growth and need for its own exhibit space. In March 2015, the SM&NC opened Heckscher WILD!, a live animal exhibit that features non-releasable animals from all over the world in four ecosystems—grasslands, rainforest, mountains, and desert.

Maple Sugar Festival Weekend

Each October, the Stamford Museum & Nature Center hosts its annual Harvest Festival Weekend, focused on seasonal activities including apple cider demonstrations, hayrides, apple slingshots, pumpkin carving, farm animal demonstrations, face painting, storytelling, crafts, a costume parade, and more.

Each March, the SM&NC revives the New England pastime of maple sugaring during the Maple Sugar Festival Weekend. At the Hecksher Farm sugarhouse, one can view tree tapping, sap collecting, and taste the sweet maple sugar that ushers in the annual agricultural awakening. Other offerings include scavenger hunts, storytellers, face painting, maple-themed crafts, pancake brunch, and a Chef's Cook-off Challenge.

Their biggest fundraiser of the year had, for many years, been the annual wine tasting and silent auction which paid tribute to Stamford Museum & Nature Center's history within its community. The June event consisted of wine tastings, samplings of food from local restaurants and caterers and a silent auction. In 2019, the SM&NC launched "An Evening With," a new annual fundraiser. The inaugural event was held in May 2019 and featured world-renowned chef Jacques Pepin.

Spring on the Farm Festival Weekend

Stamford Museum & Nature Center hosts its family-oriented Heckscher Farm Festival Weekend each May. Focusing on New England's spring traditions, including sheep shearing and wool spinning, one can view the newest additions to the farm, participate in activities like storytelling, facepainting, crafts, plant and herb sales, hayrides, and viewing the open galleries.

Each spring the Stamford Museum & Nature Center hosts its antique classic and classic car show featuring automobiles of all makes and models, US as well as imports, manufactured between 1900 and 1979. The annual event features a special “focus group” dedicated to a specific brand of car. The SM&NC ended the Model T's event after the 20th iteration.

• 1942 - wartime exhibition Camouflage in Nature and its Uses in the Military
• 1944 - Museum's first Gutzon Borglum exhibition, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore
  

  Architecture of the Imagination: The Lure of the LEGO ® Brick exhibition
• 1971 - Open House Moon Rock on display
• 1973 - Henry Moore's Elephant Skull
• 1975 - Delacroix and the French Romantic Print
• 1976 - Mr. Audubon & Mr. Bien; Navaho Blankets; Salon des Refuses
• 1978 - NASA’s Space Shuttle, Vintage Toys
• 1980 - 25 years on High Ridge; Toy Treasures, Permanent Collection
• 1994 - MAD Magazine; Ken Marchione, Elgiac Paintings
• 1997 - Ruben Nakian, Working the Image
• 2001 - Springs, Sprockets & Pulleys: The Mechanical Sculptures of Steve Gerberich; 50 Years of Beetle Bailey
• 2002 - Ukulele Fever: The Craze that Swept the Nation
• 2003 - Pedal to the Metal: A History of Children's Pedal Cars
• 2004 - From Goodnight Moon to Art Dog: The World of Clement, Edith and Thatcher Hurd
• 2005 - Creative Contraptions: Rube Goldberg and Goldberg-inspired art
• 2006 - Consuming Desires: Modern Marketing Posters, 1880-1918; Built to Scale: Auto, Plane & Boat Model Masterpieces
• 2008 - Architecture of the Imagination: The Lure of the LEGO ® Brick exhibition, showcasing the sculpture of Nathan Sawaya and Bill Probert's Trainscape, constructed with team of Stamford High School students, set record-breaking gallery attendance of 69,000 visitors
• 2009 - Rodin: In his Own Words; Baseball’s League of Nations: A Salute to Native American Baseball Players
• 2010 - Gerberich’s Gadgetry; Robert Deyber, Turning a Phrase
• 2011 - Gather up the Fragments: The Andrew Shaker Collection; To The Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA

Art, Nature and Me Preschool