This fortified door from a house in Deerfield, Massachusetts, is one of only two surviving exterior doors dating from the 17th century. Salvaged from the house John Sheldon built in 1699, the door has come to symbolize a 1704 raid on the town- a conflict between Deerfield’s early settlers and the French in Canada and their Native American allies. When the house was taken down in 1848, residents began to question the fate of other relics of their past. This concern eventually resulted in the formation of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and the opening of Memorial Hall Museum, where the “Old Indian House door” and other material evidence of the past could be safely housed and displayed.