About this Event
The Prudence Crandall Museum, site of the Canterbury Female Boarding School is open to visitors during the 2025 season through timed guided tours ONLY.
Open days are Fridays through Mondays, May 9 through October 27. Tour size is limited to 15 people per tour. Purchasing tickets in advance is encouraged, as tours may fill up quickly. Please select tickets for all members of your party, even if the ticketholder is free.
CURRENT SOLD OUT TOURS (as of May 1):
- Monday, May 12, 3 pm tour
- Monday, May 19, 10 am tour
NOTE: There is no 1:30 pm tour on Saturday, May 10 due to the 1 pm virtual author & illustrator event featuring the graphic novel Surrounded (NBM Publishing, 2025).
The museum is closed the following days: Memorial Day (5/26), staff development (6/2), Labor Day (9/1), and Indigenous Peoples' Day (10/13).
Tours are offered at the following times, and last one hour:
10 am [NOTE: No 10 am tours on Sundays]
11:30 am
1:30 pm
3 pm
We are proud to be a Blue Star Museum:
Active Military & up to 5 family members with military ID are free
We participate in Museums for All: Individual & up to 5 family members presenting a SNAP EBT card and a valid form of photo ID are free
Late arrivals will not be admitted 10 minutes past the start of the tour time. Refunds will not be given to late arrivals or no-shows. Masks are welcome and optional. Please plan to arrive close to your tour time, as there are no indoor waiting locations. The Peace Garden and picnic tables are welcoming spaces in nice weather.
Private tours (A private tour is defined as a tour during non-open or off-tour hours for attendance of 10 to 15 people with a one-person contact/organizer.):
Private tours are scheduled on Thursdays throughout the season and include an added cost ($13 per adult). To schedule a private tour, contact [email protected] or call 860-546-7800 ext. 101. NOTE: If Thursdays are not the best option for your group, you are welcome to purchase as many tickets as necessary (up to 15 total) for a regularly-scheduled tour at the standard prices. If all 15 tickets are not purchased, members of the general public will still have the option to join the tour.
School tours (8th-grade through college) include an added cost ($7 per student; teachers and paras are free). We will do our best to accommodate your class schedule. Please contact [email protected] or call 860-546-7800 ext. 101.
For general questions contact email: [email protected] or phone: 860-546-7800 and leave a message in the general voicemail box. For the most up-to-date information, visit the Prudence Crandall Museum Facebook page.
About the Tour
The first floor of the museum is accessible and contains the exhibit, "Canterbury Female Boarding School: Courage, Conscience, & Continuance." The second floor is closed.
The museum is not decorated as a traditional historic house museum. Teachers, students, and supporters left few primary sources on how rooms were used during the time the Canterbury Female Boarding School was in operation, and few artifacts connected to the school have survived.
The exhibit shares the stories of the school's teachers and students and demonstrates expressions of support and opposition at the town, state, national, and global levels during the tumultuous seventeen months the school remained open.
Tours are conversational. Dialogue between guides and visitors show how the legal expansion of education opportunities connects the Canterbury Female Boarding School to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka U.S. Supreme Court case. We hope visitors leave inspired to continue the mission of Sarah Harris and Prudence Crandall by addressing current barriers to education.
About the Museum
The Prudence Crandall Museum is a National Historic Landmark and State Archaeological Preserve located in Canterbury, CT.
In 1832, Crandall, the white principal of the Canterbury Female Boarding School, was approached by a young Black woman named Sarah Harris asking to attend the school. Encouraged by conversations with both Harris and Maria Davis, a Black woman who worked for Crandall and shared copies of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, with her, Crandall agreed to admit Harris. When residents protested the school’s integration and parents threatened to withdraw their daughters, Crandall closed her school and reopened in 1833 for Black and Brown students. Students traveled from several states to attend the school. Connecticut responded by passing the “Black Law,” which prevented out-of-state Black and Brown people from attending school in Connecticut towns without local town approval. Crandall was arrested, spent one night in J*il, and faced three court trials before the case was dismissed. In September 1834, a nighttime mob attack closed the school. These events made national and international news in the 1830s and galvanized the burgeoning abolitionist movement. Many of the students such as Julia Williams, Mary Miles, and Mary Harris, went on to become educators, reformers, and leaders in their communities. Crandall v. Connecticut impacted two U.S. Supreme Court decisions and laid the framework for the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Prudence Crandall Museum is a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Owned by the State of Connecticut, the Museum is operated by the State Historic Preservation Office. As part of The Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor, the Prudence Crandall Museum proudly offers an official National Park Service Passport stamp.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
1 S Canterbury Rd, 1 South Canterbury Road, Canterbury, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 10.00
