NLMS: Custom House Museum Gift Shop / New Items Arriving Daily | NL Pequot Lighthouse Tours ….

What’s Up at the

Custom House

November 2025

#StandUpForScience #Museums4Science

New in the Shop — Jack in the Boxes: rabbits, foxes, and dinosaurs!

Bold red type indicates a hot link. Be sure to click the links to find out more.

The Custom House is Open Thurs.- Fri. 1-5 PM,

Sat. 10 AM-5 PM, Sun. 1-5 PM.

It’s all in flux at the Custom House — and that’s a good thing.

Running a successful museum gift shop is an art in itself. Orders have to be timed for the seasons, displays refreshed, and everything kept tidy. With new items arriving daily, the Shop is filling fast!

Now that it’s November, we’re switching up for the holidays. Luckily, we have three expert merchandisers assisting on Saturdays. Both Felix Orlando, who used to own a bike shop, and Leonard Loew, an experienced store display professional ( formerly of the USCG) are ensuring the Shop stays inviting and never overcrowded.

This weekend, they decided to extend our 50%-off sale — and keep adding to it! (Even my favorite colorful British striped candles and holders are now 30% off — reluctantly!) NLMS members also receive their usual 10% discount, so the sales actually are phenomenal!

Our third expert, Regan Morse, the brains behind the scenes, brings her own shop-owning experience to the mix — advising on purchases, pricing, and bookkeeping. What a team!

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Photo,top: Holiday cards — well, time flies & it’s November! Photo,middle: Sea Glass soaps, and a sea glass puzzle in a beaker.

Photo,right: stickers and Autumn cards.

We’re bringing new items into the Shop every week!

Meanwhile, the 50%-off Sale is going so well we’re keeping it going & adding to it — we need the room in the Shop.

We’ve also put our striped and beeswax candles on sale at 30% off!

Saturdays, Sundays, & by appointment year-round

a popular destination for more than a century.

Visit Inside NL Harbor Pequot Light

Visit Long Island Sound’s oldest and tallest lighthouse. Photo: Ford Gerritt.

Tours: Every Saturday & Sunday, or by appointment

See the 4th order Fresnel lens (in use since 1857) and enjoy stunning views across Long Island Sound.

Tours accommodate up to five people and last about 40 minutes.

To book a custom tour, just send us an email.

Thanks to a Chelsea Groton Foundation grant, New London residents can visit for just $5 this fall and winter! Sign up today. To book a custom tour, just send along an email.

Thanks to a grant from the Chelsea Groton Foundation, this fall & winter NL residents may tour for just $5!

Sight and Sound: Artists Consider

Long Island Sound

AVS Gallery, UConn Avery Point, 1084 Shennecossett Rd. Groton

Opening Reception, Wed. November 5, 5:30-7:30 pm. Panel discussion, 6:30 pm.

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Frances Ashforth, Christpher Baker, Marion Belanger and Martha Willette Lewis, Christopher Coffin, Kenneth Martin, Brechin Morgan, Constance Old, James Prosek, Duke Riley, Alexis Rockman, Jeremy Slater (in collaboration with Christopher Coffin), Beth Stewart-Kelly, Catherine Vanaria

This exhibition brings together the work of fourteen contemporary artists who have engaged with one of the largest tidal estuaries on the Atlantic coast of the United States through their work. This exhibition, curated by artist, independent curator and writer Richard Klein, was organized following his 2024 residency at Peck’s Ledge Lighthouse, sponsored by The Norwalk Art Space. Peck’s Ledge Light, built in 1906, is in the Sound, one mile off Norwalk’s Calf Pasture Beach.