Spirits at Stowe

Spirits at Stowe Tours

October 31, 2022

Dim lamp through lace curtains, Stowe House parlor Three hands on wooden planchette with candles

Join us on one of our Spirits tours, where visitors explore nineteenth-century ideas of Spiritualism. The tour presents Spiritualist concepts and interesting facts and stories about those who embraced the trend within Stowe’s broad social circle. The tour also considers how the Spiritualist practice of contacting and interacting with the spirits of the dead intersects with women’s rights, religion, the impacts of war and child mortality, and social justice writing. Like many people grappling with loss in the post-Civil War era, Harriet Beecher Stowe—a mother who outlived four of her seven children—found solace in the Spiritualist belief that the spirits of the dead moved and communicated freely in the world of the living, and embraced it even as she affirmed her commitment to mainstream religion.

Participants are invited to question and observe the materials of Spiritualism, including the planchette, séances, automatic writing, and postmortem photography, as well as the contradictions of Spiritualist beliefs, all while touring the Stowe House in the evening light (and listening for spirits along the way).

Tickets are available in advance online. Tours will be offered from Thursday, October 27 through Monday, October 31, and are limited to eight visitors per tour. Spirits at Stowe events are recommended for ages 10 and up.

Purchase tickets

Location The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center/77 Forest St./Hartford, CT 06105

Doors Open Monday at 3:00 pm

Program Monday: 3:00 or 5:00 pm

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.