Forbes House Museum — Attraction in Milton

Truly remarkable wealth. It is hard to handle knowing where it came from, but the museum doesn’t hide this reality. Instead, they partner with Courageous Conversations to be a living reminder of the Opium Trade and the Slave Trade and how it profited merchants in the US.

I do hope that, just as those who fed opioid addiction in the US are meeting Justice, that Justice continues to come to those who got filthy rich off of a filthy business.

Still, there’s a lot more here than just that sad reality (and it is a reality I’m glad this museum ensures we do not forget). There is manuscript-gifted poetry and long-since banned Ivory, and wooden tables carved to assemble without nails!

The luxury and history here is remarkable AND almost entirely accessible (Elevator out front).

The Peabody Essex Museum has more on the opium and “China Trade” in general, so this is more focused on the family.

I love that one descendant was obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and built a replica of Lincoln’s Kentucky cabin in the back yard a hundred years ago. You can see it to this day. Maybe Lincoln’s work toward freedom meant something, coming from a family whose wealth was, through the uncle, in part through the slave trade.

Only open three days a week for a few hours so be sure to check and buy tickets in advance!!!

You can also see the last Governor of Mass Bay’s abandoned field across the street, or the marker to where George HW Bush was born...

The Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House, also known as the R. B. Forbes House and Forbes House Museum (and formerly as the American China Trade Museum), is a house museum located at 215 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. It is now a National Historic Landmark.

This house museum displays the history of an American entrepreneurial family involved in the China Trade, primarily in opium, in the mid to late 19th century. The house was built in 1833 for Margaret Perkins, by her sons Captain Robert Bennet Forbes and John Murray Forbes, and their sisters. It was designed in an unusual Greek Revival style by Boston architect Isaiah Rogers. It is now one of two surviving examples of Rogers' early domestic work.

The house was used by four Forbes family generations, until 1962. It was opened as a museum by descendant H. A. Crosby Forbes in 1964. Today it is furnished with the family's furniture, art, and American, European, and Old China Trade heirlooms. The museum also contains a large collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia collected by Captain Forbes's granddaughter, Mary Bowditch Forbes. A replica of Lincoln's birthplace cabin was constructed on...

Home of Captain Robert Forbes, who made his living as a sea captain and China trade. Forbes piloted the only ship of relief aid from the U.S. to Ireland during the Irish Famine. Neat replica of Abe Lincoln's cabin on the property - one of the females in the family was all about Lincoln, hence the cabin. Governor Hutchinson's field is across the street - great view of Boston and historic field - Governor H. was a Tory sympathizer and ran from angry colonists back to England. He left from this field where his summer...