Events

Presenter: Liz Tentarelli

The campaign for women's right to vote was a long one, from the 1848 Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York to ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. Who were the key players in New Hampshire and the nation? What issues and obstacles did they face? How did suffragists benefit from World War I in the final push for passage of the women's suffrage amendment? Who was left out when women got the right to vote? Using historic photos and documents, Liz Tentarelli will guide us on the journey. Liz is president of the League of Women Voters NH, a non-partisan organization that is the direct descendant of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Registration information will be posted soon.

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Presenter: Rebecca Rule

Stories speak to us of community. They hold our history and reflect our identity. Rebecca Rule has made it her mission over the last 20 years to collect stories of New Hampshire, especially those that reflect what's special about this rocky old place. She'll tell some of those stories - her favorites are the funny ones - and invite audience members to contribute a few stories of their own. Registration information will be posted soon. 

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Presenter: Jane Oneail

New Hampshire has attracted and inspired artists since the colonial era. What is distinctive about the art made here? This program will consider works by itinerant and folk painters, landscape artists drawn to the state's scenic vistas, and modern artists that adopted bold styles to depict everyday life in the Granite State. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Childe Hassam, and Maxfield Parrish are some of the artists discussed in this program. Registration information will be posted soon. 

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Presenter: Richard Hesse

John G. Winant, three-time governor of New Hampshire went on to serve the nation in several capacities on the national and international scene. In the process he became a hero to the British in World War Two and to the common man throughout the developed world. His life, marked by highs and lows, ended tragically in his mansion in Concord. The program examines his life and measures his impact at home and abroad. 

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Presenter: Maura MacNeil

What family stories do you carry with you? What story do you tell over and over? What landscape do you cherish the most? One of the deepest human instincts is to tell our life stories, to figure out who we are and what it means to be human. This interactive workshop led by Maura MacNeil explores how the landscapes of our lives shape the stories that we tell. Participants explore the themes of family, memory, and place through sample narratives and a series of short writing exercises, gaining a deeper awareness of how their stories can preserve personal, generational, and communal history. Registration information will be posted shortly. 

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Presenter: Mohamed Defaa

The term "Middle East" is a changing geopolitical concept. Throughout recent history, this term referred to a political, a cultural, and a geographical region with no clear boundaries. Moreover, this concept serves to generate stereotypes and misunderstanding. This multimedia presentation by Mohamed Defaa provides an analytical framework to understand the histories, social identities, and cultures behind this complex concept of "Middle East." Registration information will be posted soon. 

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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89910531102
Meeting ID: 899 1053 1102 

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Presenter: Steve Wood

Abraham Lincoln, portrayed by Steve Wood, begins this program by recounting his early life and ends with a reading of the "Gettysburg Address." Along the way he comments on the debates with Stephen Douglas, his run for the presidency, and the Civil War.   

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Presenter: Glenn Knoblock

This program offers a fun and engaging look at the historic and unusual weathervanes found on New Hampshire's churches, town halls, and other public buildings from earliest times down to the present. Highlighted by the visual presentation of a sampling of the vanes found throughout the state, Glenn Knoblock's program will trace the history of weathervanes, their practical use and interesting symbolism, as well as their varied types and methods of manufacture and evolution from practical weather instrument to architectural embellishment.

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Presenter: Abby Goode

What is sustainability? And how has American literature shaped our understanding of this concept, in ways both surprising and disturbing? This interactive program begins with a discussion of current ideas about sustainability. Then, we will go back in time to examine Thomas Jefferson's vision of American agricultural abundance, which he contrasted with an overpopulated and under-resourced Europe. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writers such as Walt Whitman and Charlotte Perkins Gilman drew on Jefferson's agrarian vision to respond to sustainability crises of their time. But in so doing, they depicted selective breeding and racial "improvement" as the solution to population crises and the path to agricultural plenty. We will explore this particularly eugenic conception of sustainability and discuss what new or different versions of sustainability might prove more useful in our current moment. Registration information will be posted soon. 

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Presenter: Stephen Taylor

The first agricultural fair in North America was held in what is now Londonderry in 1722, and it would become a wildly popular event lasting for generations until it came to be so dominated by gambling, flim-flam, and other "scandalous dimensions" that the legislature revoked its charter in 1850. But fairs have always had strong supporters and eventually the state came around to appropriating modest sums to help them succeed. Temperance groups and others would continue to attack the fairs on moral grounds and their close connection to horse racing was a chronic flashpoint. Steve Taylor will discuss the ups and downs of the fairs down through years and how public affection for rural traditions helps them survive in contemporary times. Registration information will be posted soon. 

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As we begin to consider climate change as an everyday problem, it's valuable to know how people did that in the past. With support from the Guggenheim Foundation, Dr. Joyce E. Chaplin is compiling and analyzing a database of manuscript notes about weather in early American almanacs, 1646-1821, out of 10,578 almanacs from nine archives. Her talk focuses on how people recorded the weather in numbers (including degrees Fahrenheit) and in words, from "dull" to "elegant!" These notations are significant as records of a period of climate change, the Little Ice Age, also as records of how people understood and coped with that climatic disruption.

Dr. Joyce E. Chaplin is the James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University.

This program is part of the Community Project Grants-funded series, "Weather-Wise: Historical Records, Contemporary Conversations." For more information, please visit www.shakermuseum.org.

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Presenter: Marek Bennett

Marek Bennett presents a whirlwind survey of comics from around the world and throughout history, with special attention to what these vibrant narratives tell (and show) us about the people and periods that created them. Bennett engages and involves the audience in an interactive discussion of several sample comics representing cultures such as Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, the Ancient Maya, Feudal and modern Japan, the United States in the early 20th century, and Nazi Germany during World War II. The program explores the various ways of creating and reading comics from around the world, and what these techniques tell us about the cultures in which they occur.

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