Steppingstone Farm Museum

About Us:

Steppingstone Farm Museum preserves the Harford County farming culture and artifacts of the turn of the 20th century, educates the public about our agricultural heritage, demonstrates the past through rural arts and crafts, and promotes related educational and community activities.

Steppingstone museum is a private, not for profit museum which preserves and demonstrates the rural arts and crafts of the 1880-1920 period in Harford County. The Steppingstone collection is comprised of domestic arts, skilled trades and husbandry. The Artifacts in each category were used by skilled specialists whose talents are scarce in our present urban and industrial society.

The purpose of the collections at Steppingstone is the acquisition, preservation and study of the material culture of America's last rural generation, as well as the exhibition and demonstrated use of the artifacts. The museum was established for the education of the younger generation and continues to strive to achieve this goal through a variety of guided tours and craft workshop programs.

Visitors can spend the afternoon touring the sites of a once working Harford County farm. The farmhouse, furnished as a turn-of-the-century home, charms the visitor as a guide invites you to share the daily life of the period. Tours include the formal sitting room, sleeping quarters, and kitchen with its wood burning stove and ice box. The stone farmhouse is furnished with antiques from the 1880-1920 time period. Displays of quilts, lacework, dolls, toys, books, and other memorabilia complete this collection.

The nearby shops and display barn hold many examples and exhibits which share the industries and implements of the farm family. Visitors is encouraged to discuss the craft skills with the volunteers. The collection of old restored hand tools. started by J. Edmund Bull and augmented by many local gifts, occupy the many implement sheds. Other shops contain the tools of the blacksmith, joiner, woodwright, cooper, potter, wheelwright, dairy farmer, spinner and weaver. In the big barn, there is a replica of the late 19th century general store, an office of the veterinarian and workshop of the decoy carver. The carriage barn houses carriages, buggies and sleighs. The museum grounds are enhanced with a variety of trees and shrubs, perennial flowers and cutting garden and herb garden.

The Museum Store features some of the hand-crafted articles produced by Steppingstone friends and volunteers and other items all Made in the USA.

By special agreement, the museum is jointly sponsored on a non-funding basis by the Maryland Park Service. A limited staff and a extensive volunteer network administer and organize all museum functions, programs and special events