Historic Deerfield is a museum of early American history, architecture, and the decorative arts that recognizes a particular responsibility for preserving and interpreting the buildings entrusted to it, their unique setting in the Town of Deerfield, and the collections in those buildings. To this end it maintains and operates the buildings as exhibition areas open to the public; conducts a broad range of educational programs; refines and adds to its collections; and promotes continuing research in its museum and library collections and in the history of the Connecticut valley.