About this Event
The Prudence Crandall Museum, site of the Canterbury Female Boarding School is open to visitors during the 2026 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.
NOTE: Museum adminstration staff will be out of the office 8/4 to 8/12. Any issues regarding Eventbrite ticketing will be handled after staff returns to the office. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Tours are offered at the following times, and last one hour:
Fridays & Mondays: 10 am, 11:30 am, 1:30 pm, & 3 pm
Saturdays & Sundays: 11:30 am & 3 pm
Tuesdays-Wednesdays: Closed / Thursdays: private tours only
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.
CURRENT SOLD OUT TOURS (as of August 3, 2026):
- 1:30 pm September 19, 2026
Private tours (A private tour is defined as a tour for 10 to 15 adults 18+ during non-open or off-tour hours with a one-person contact/organizer. The museum is not open for tours "by appointment."):
Private tours are scheduled on Thursdays throughout the season (May-October) and are offered at a separate cost of $13 per adult 18+. To schedule a private tour, contact [email protected] or call 860-546-7800 ext. 101. NOTE: Private tours cannot be scheduled on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. 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.
What Happened Here in the 1830s?
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.
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 or historic school. 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.
The museum is closed the following days: Memorial Day (5/25), Independence Day (7/4), Labor Day (9/7), & Indigenous Peoples' Day (10/13).
The museum will be open for Juneteenth (6/19).
Event venue & nearby stays
Prudence Crandall Museum, 1 South Canterbury Road, Canterbury, United States
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