PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Nathaniel Philbrick’s lecture, Antiquarian Hall Comments from audience members: Thank you for hosting these interesting lectures. The American Antiquarian Society is a jewel of Worcester and a national treasure. Extremely informative, thoughtful, and well done. Interesting combination of basic history (things one is supposed to know aready) with detail that gives them new context, emphasis, and clearer historical importance in influencing events and culture today. I thoroughly enjoy these programs and recommend them to others.
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Public Programs filled Antiquarian Hall to capacity during the year, with lecturers covering a wide range of subjects. These programs highlight work done by members and fellows, often involving research at AAS, and interpreting the history and culture of the United States during the period covered by the Society’s collections. Perhaps not surprisingly, these free lectures can have entirely different audiences, depending on the topic. Starting the fall series, AAS member Nathaniel Philbrick gave a fascinating account of George A. Custer’s defeat in 1876, an event that stunned the nation in its centennial year. He also described the process of researching and writing his book on Custer, The Last Stand. A Peterson Fellow in 2004, Ilyon Woo did research for her book, The Great Divorce, in the AAS newspaper collection. She recounted how Eunice Chapman challenged her husband, who joined the Shakers in 1814, and ultimately the Shaker community itself, to regain custody of her children. The Society also collaborated with Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Mass., on a program of dramatic readings of historical texts used in the book. AAS member Marla Miller, the author of the first scholarly biography of Betsy Ross, brought her subject to life, exploring the myths that are so much a part of Ross’s fame. In the last lecture of the fall series, AAS member Paul Finkelman discussed the libel trial of John Peter Zenger, introducing his audience to a colorful cast of characters in early eighteenth-century New York City. Finkelman, a professor of law and public policy at Albany Law School, recently published
a new edition of A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger. The Boston Tea Party was the subject of Benjamin Carp’s lecture and his recently published book, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America. Carp, who was a Peterson Fellow in 2001-02, talked about the audacity of the colonists. Joshua C. Kendall, who spoke on Noah Webster, did research at AAS in the manuscripts collection which contains correspondence between Webster and Society founder Isaiah Thomas. The final lecture of the spring series was delivered by AAS members James and Lois Horton, the Mellon Distinguished Scholars in Residence in 2010-11. The fall 2010 and spring 2011 programs were: Nathaniel Philbrick, “The Last Stand at the Little Bighorn: A Centennial Catastrophe,” September 16, 2010 Ilyon Woo, “Discovering the Great Divorce,” September 28, 2010 Marla R. Miller, “Betsy Ross: The Life Behind the Legend,” October 12, 2010 Paul Finkelman, “John Peter Zenger and His Brief Narrative,” November 9, 2010 Benjamin Carp, “Teapot in a Tempest: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America,” April 5, 2011 Joshua C. Kendall, “Noah Webster and the Creation of an American Culture,” April 19, 2011 James and Lois Horton, “Liberty and Justice for All: The Civil War as Blacks’ Second American Revolution,” May 12, 2011