Ward House Videos

General Artemas Ward House Museum Videos

Parts 1-3: Ward House Museum

Exploring the history of a place and time is a lot like walking into a house. You need a door or entry-some way to get inside the story. The rooms within the house are all interconnected, but they contain different moments-some speak of residents and actions very close to the present, while other adjoining rooms remember a time further back; they all store their stories like trunks.

Part 2: General Artemas Ward

Of the many stories in the Ward House, that of General Artemas Ward is perhaps the most well-known. In the annals of the American Revolution, Artemas Ward is remembered for being the commander of the patriot troops during the Siege of Boston in 1775-and, thus, the first commander-in-chief of the American Revolution.

Part 1: The House

In 1925 Harvard University received an extraordinary gift. Artemas Ward of the seventh generation of Ward family members to have spent time at the house in Shrewsbury bequeathed the house to Harvard. For two centuries, Wards had lived in, expanded, renovated, and worked in the house. They even started to set it up as a museum.

Part 3: The Family

Walking through the Ward House, you almost expect that a member of the Ward family will step out of each room and greet you. Part of that immediacy might be that, like the house itself, the Ward family continues-after ten generations-to be a part of Harvard and the local community.