The Ebony Horsewomen’s Mary Fields Horse & Heritage Museum

Mary “Stagecoach Mary” Fields embodies
the concept of freedom at the heart of the Connecticut Freedom Trail. Born enslaved in Tennessee, she seized her own liberation and later became the first African American woman Star Route mail
carrier for the U.S. Post Office, working as an independent contractor in Montana. Her life defied the constraints of race, gender, and age: a self-employed, armed Black woman who controlled her labor, mobility, and reputation in the Jim Crow era. By interpreting her story at Keney Park in Hartford, the Mary Fields Horse and Heritage Museum connects Connecticut audiences to a national figure whose courage, economic independence, and insistence on dignity powerfully illuminate the long struggle toward freedom and equality recognized by the Freedom Trail.

Mary Fields Horse and Heritage Museum, a community museum dedicated to Black and Indigenous equestrian history

Historic Keney Park in Hartford is a 693-acre, Olmsted-designed landscape in the city’s North End that has long served as a green commons and cultural anchor for surrounding communities. Created from an initial 533-acre bequest by Henry Keney in the 1890s and expanded over time, it is one of the largest designed urban park landscapes in the United States and a key part of Hartford’s historic park system. Generations of North End residents—including substantial Jewish and African American populations—have used Keney Park for family gatherings, recreation, and community events, making it a focal point of neighborhood life and identity.

Within this historic landscape sits the Ebony Horsewomen Equestrian and Therapeutic
Center and its newly opened Mary Fields Horse and Heritage Museum, a community
museum dedicated to Black and Indigenous equestrian history. The 1,400-square-foot museum, named for Mary “Stagecoach Mary” Fields, presents exhibitions, artifacts, and programs that reclaim the almost-erased history of Black cowboys and horsewomen, while also documenting Ebony Horsewomen’s four decades of service to Hartford youth, families, and veterans.

Changing Lives Through Horses

Ebony Horsewomen (EHI) is a one-of-a-kind equestrian and therapeutic center based in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1984, EHI has transformed lives for over four decades through culturally competent equine-assisted psychotherapy, therapeutic riding, and youth development programs. Thier mission is rooted in healing, empowerment, and creating opportunities for youth, families, adults, and military veterans in our community, using the powerful bond between humans and horses.