Published June 04, 2018 by Rebecca Goldfine

New Walk With Harriet Tours Explore Stowe’s 1850s Brunswick

Cathi Belcher, a Harriet Beecher Stowe expert and the guide to the Stowe House is launching a new walking tour to show people the places in Brunswick that were important for Stowe as she worked on her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Harriet Beecher Stowe and her Bowdoin professor husband spent just two years at Bowdoin — 1850 to 1852 — but they were momentous ones, both personally for her and for the nation. In between caring for her six children and running a household, Stowe wrote the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book, published in 1852, was a best-seller, and helped to spur the start of the Civil War.

Cathi Belcher, a Harriet Beecher Stowe expert and the guide to the Stowe House — which is a National Historic Landmark — is launching a new walking tour to show people the places in Brunswick that were important for Stowe as she worked on her book. 

The tours will run from June 8 to October 26, rain or shine, leaving the Harriet Beecher Stowe House at 63 Federal Street every Friday at 10 a.m. The tours last roughly an hour, and include stops at seven important sites, both on Bowdoin’s campus and nearby.

Additionally, Belcher leads the popular Tea with Harriet events, at 1 p.m. the third Thursday of each month, where she discusses different aspects of Stowe’s life and legacy.