I drove from Dallas to Lenox, Massachusetts, which is a lovely town where you'll find white clapboarad houses and country inns dotting the Main Street. A hub of bustling activity with grand estates built as country homes by wealthy industrialists in the late nineteenth century, known as the Berkshire Cottage era, are now hotels.
THE MOUNT
Edith Wharton's Home. (1862-1937). She was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate of letters from Yale. She worte 40 books in 40 years.
Wharton designed and built the Mount in 1902. She wrote "The House of Mirth"(1905) and Ethan Frome (1911).This is the bed where she wrote most of her novels.
A celibate, communal sect founded in 1774 by Mother Ann Lee as the United Society of Believers that celebrated its love of God in a rousing dance worship and was given the popular name "Shakers". The Shaker's commitment to a life of purity, simplicity and utility is no more clearly namifestd than in their simplified original style of furniture.
Naumkeag was a summer retreat for New York City lawyer and diplomat, Joseph Hodges Choate (1832-1917). McKim,Mead & White , one of the most prominent architectural firms of the time, designed the 44 room mansion in 1885.
Mr. Choate sucessfully defeated the Federal Income Tax Statute that extended the "Gilded Age" by 25 more years. He also helped the Vanderbilt's attain their first divorce.
Lino Tagliapetra from Murano, Italy had many works featured. Dale Chuhuly also exhibited a beautiful crystal chandelier.
Home , Studio and Gardens of Lincoln Memorial sculptor, Daniel Chester French.
He lived next to Louisa May Alcott ("Little Women"). Her daughter encouraged him to sculpt. The Lincoln memoria is 19 feet tall. He shipped the piece to Washington D.C. in 4 pieces.
Norman Rockwell was the greatest living illustrator and painter. (1894-1978)
In 1916 he showed up at the editor's office of the "Saturday Evening Post". He was 22, and the editor bought his illustration for the cover - this becan a 47 year career "greatest show window of America".
After, he illustrated for "Look " magazine for 10 years.
Herman Melville's home. (1819-1891). In 1846-1857 was the era where his writings were the most popular. He took to the sea in 1839 where he wrote "Typee" and then in 1851 "Moby Dick" which was a commercial failure. His last novel was "Billy Budd, Sailor" which was published after his death in 1924. In 1951, Benjamin Britten turned it into an opera. In the mid 1930's, a Yale University scholar, Stanley Williams renewed interest, and catelogued the achievements of Herman Melville.
Museum designed by Tadao Ando (also designed The Modern in Ft. Worth)
The collection spans six centuries; however is best known for its holding of important French Impressionist, Old Master, and American paintings.
Sterling Clark, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, settled in Paris in 1910. The Clark's for 40 years created an important private collection. Eventually they decided to share these works by establishing the Clark Art Institute. 
Van Gogh and Nature - Vincent Van Gogh studied and depicted nature in all its forms, creating a body of work that revolutionized the representation of the natural world at the end of the 19th century. 
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