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November 15, 2008-January 4, 2009
24th Annual Festival of Trees "Goes Green"
200 decorated trees fill the galleries. This year's themes explores was to make the holidays more sustainable. Sponsored by Legacy Banks Foundation

January-April 2009
Race to the Top: Arctic Inspirations 1909 & Today
The Berkshire Museum will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Robert Peary’s 1909 expedition to the North Pole with a special exhibition. The exhibition will examine the role of Matthew Henson, the African American explorer who accompanied Peary on five expeditions to the Arctic, including the successful 1909 trip. Peary and Henson together are widely believed to be the first people to reach the geographic location of the North Pole. Berkshire Museum founder Zenas Crane funded Peary’s expedition in part, and as a result Peary donated a significant group of sixteen objects from the expedition to the museum. The two most prized objects from this collection are one of five sledges to make the trek to the pole itself and Henson’s fur suit. These exceptional objects are authenticated by hand-written correspondence between Crane and Peary and by letters from Henson to the Berkshire Museum. Inuit artifacts from two famous expeditions by Donald B. MacMillan will also be featured, along with recent views of the Arctic and scientific information about the effects of climate change on the northernmost regions of our planet.

Winter 2010
Wrapped!: In Search of the Essential Mummy
An exhibition exploring the Western interest in Egyptian mummies as scientific objects and as sources of artistic inspiration. The exhibition explores the use of modern imaging technology in current mummy studies and presents the work of 21st-century forensic specialists in studying and reconstructing the appearance of members of the important ancient Egyptian community of Akhmim.