The American character has not only been formed by historic events, documents, and principles but by the literature we read and produce. Wilfred McClay, a Professor of History at Hillsdale College, conveys this truth in a delightful review of the Mark Twain House and Museum in Connecticut for the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites.
Twain lived in the home from 1874 to 1891, so it is where he wrote many of his best-known works. Many a young boy has passed time with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, to be captured by the American spirit of adventure.
Like these great American books, a visit to the author’s home can also help form the imagination. McClay describes his initial impression:
“The house is so colorful and interesting that children will be drawn in by the sheer fantastical qualities of it, its profusion of rooms and nooks and crannies; and by the stories that the well-informed guides tell about the activities in different rooms…Most children will find the house irresistible, as appealing as a giant gingerbread fantasy.”
Architect Edward Tuckerman Potter designed the Victorian house, and Twain and his wife took great pains in selecting its contents and decorating its walls and ceilings. Today, it contains 50,000 artifacts “including manuscripts, historic photographs, family furnishings, and Tiffany glass.”
The home is open to tours, though advanced reservations are recommended. McClay notes that the guides are fountains of knowledge who inspire visitors to admire Twain and the mansion.
Exhibits and the guides neither shy away from nor fixate on what has made Twain controversial. As a result, the site earns an “A” grade for its accurate, comprehensive, and non-ideological telling of history.
In planning America 250 excursions throughout 2026, families and citizens can go to Revolutionary battlefields where many gave their last full measure of devotion, museums that house swords and musket balls, and Halls where America’s principles were given expression.
But the American heritage is even richer than that, including art, architecture, poetry, and literature. The Mark Twain House and Museum emphasize those aspects of our inheritance and offer a chance to renew our love of the written word.
This is something upon which civilization depends. As preeminent Lincoln scholar Dr. Harry Jaffa wrote, “the immortality of the deed depends on the immortality of the word. ‘In the beginning was the Word.'"
