Known as the ARC, the Trustees Archives & Research Center in Sharon is the hub of our organization’s historical, curatorial, and institutional repositories.
The Trustees Archives & Research Center (ARC) cares for and curates Trustees’ history, providing researchers, Trustees, and the public access to thousands of historical documents, images, and artifacts. Our collection includes an ever-growing repository of research materials, from letters written during the Civil War to books inscribed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Trustees founder Charles Eliot’s scrapbook to ribbons for prize-winning pigs. The collections cover a range of contexts—from Colonial dairy practices to the China Trade to the origins of the land trust movement—revealing not just the history of our reservations and our role in the land trust movement, but the society and times in which they existed.
The property holds historically significant remains of the former Sharon Sanatorium for Pulmonary Disease, which operated from 1891 until 1949. The ARC building’s fascinating history began in 1916, as the children’s pavilion of the Sharon Sanatorium, caring for youth afflicted with tuberculosis. The Kendall family purchased the property after the Sanatorium’s closing, and in 1956 opened the building as the Kendall Whaling Museum, which remained in operation until 2001 when its massive collection was merged with the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Today, the ARC is a fire-retardant, climate-controlled structure, ideal for conservation and curatorial storage. Researchers are encouraged to visit for queries into the Trustees’ sizeable, and growing, repository. The ARC’s digital collections are available at thetrustees.org/collections.
For more information about the Trustees’ wide variety of collections, including those open to the public at our historic houses, estates, and museums, visit our Collections page.
Note: the ARC property itself is not open for public visitation, and has no walking trails; the public may, however, make appointments to browse the collection.
By appointment only.
Please call 781.784.8200 or email arc@thetrustees.org to arrange your visit.
The ARC is a large stucco building across a little bridge.
27 Everett Street
Sharon, MA 02067
Telephone: 781.784.8200
Email: arc@thetrustees.org
Get directions on Google Maps.
From Points North: I-95 South to Exit 10. At end of exit turn left onto Coney St. At light, continue on Coney Street, which turns into Norwood Street/Rt. 27. After 1.7 mi., go partway around rotary, then turn right onto Upland Road. After 0.2 mi., at top of hill, turn right onto Everett Street.
From Points South: I-95 North to Exit 8 (South Main Street). Turn right onto South Main Street and for 3.1 mi. follow into the center of town. At light, turn left onto Depot St. After 0.5 mi., go left around rotary (around tan house), then turn right onto Upland Road. After 0.2 mi., at top of hill, turn right onto Everett Street.
From Sharon Commuter Rail Station: Walk up the stairs to Upland Rd. Walk 0.3 mi., then turn left on Upland Rd. After 0.2 mi., turn right onto Everett St.
As reminder, all visitors must make an appointment before coming here.
Accessibility
The ARC property itself is not open for public visitation, and has no walking trails. The public may, however, make appointments to browse the collection.
Please call 781.784.8200 or email arc@thetrustees.org to arrange your visit.
The ARC building’s fascinating history began in 1916, as the children’s pavilion of the Sharon Sanatorium, caring for youth afflicted with tuberculosis. The Kendall family purchased the property after the Sanatorium’s closing, and in 1956 opened the building as the Kendall Whaling Museum, which remained in operation until 2001 when its massive collection was merged with the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
