Category Archives: Uncategorized

2023 Update Plus My Experience at the 2023 MANY Conference in Syracuse

December 21, 2023

A lot has happened this year. While I have not been posting as much since being promoted to the role of Education Coordinator at Three Village Historical Society, I have regularly posted about my experiences as Education Coordinator and other adventures on the blog’s Instagram page. I shared pictures from the MANY Conference I attended, Sweetbriar Nature Center’s Butterfly and Bird Festival where I got a picture with an owl, Education and Crafts Table during Three Village Farmer’s Market season, visits to local museums and exhibits, a weekend trip to New York City, this year’s Spirits Tour and mini-exhibit during October, pictures of me dressed as Barbie for Halloween, and the Candlelight House Tour I attended with the rest of the TVHS staff. Check out the Instagram at @lbmfmuseumeducation to see what I was up to this year if you have not done so already.

Since I was getting used to my new role at TVHS, I was not posting as much as I would have usually in the past. I will work on posting more blog posts for 2024. Thank you all who have been reading previous posts and most recent ones this year! I hope all of you have a happy Winter Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and a Happy New Year!

Below are my experience and my impressions of this past year’s Museum Association of New York conference:

Since this was the first MANY conference I attended, I did not entirely know what I was going to expect but I am happy that I was able to attend this past year’s conference in Syracuse. It was also my first time in Syracuse as well, so I was happy that there was an opportunity to explore part of the city while I was at the conference. The speakers during the Opening Session were very informative. I especially appreciated that MANY chose the speakers who spoke about not only what is relevant to the conference’s theme but also acknowledged the land that belonged to the indigenous people we were occupying especially during this conference. I am glad that MANY had a presentation on how to bring justice to museums Omar Eaton-Martinez discussed with conference participants. I also enjoyed the opportunity to visit the art museum in Syracuse where the Opening Session was located. I was able to see an exhibit that incorporated art and basketball called “Hoop Dreams: Basketball & Contemporary Art”, and I thought it was interesting that there was a small court where we were able to shoot basketballs into the hoops. One of the pieces I found interesting was a flower made of deflated basketballs.

There were a few sessions that I attended that stood out to me. One of the sessions I enjoyed was “Relationship Building for Educating Our Community” which focused on how museums can collaborate with indigenous communities to create educational programming and events by sharing one museum’s experience in planning an event with a local indigenous community. I enjoyed and learned a lot from the “Everyone’s Got a Woodstock Story” session because the speakers demonstrated how to conduct an oral history interview and asked participants to be a part of the Woodstock Oral History project if they had a Woodstock-related story to share. I was glad that I attended the “Everyone’s Got a Woodstock Story” session since my historical society is currently working on preserving oral history interviews and it was helpful to see what the session speakers were doing for their oral history interview recordings.  Another session I really enjoyed, for example, was “For Us and For Our Communities” which was about a museum rally and creating STEAM programs; in this session, we had an opportunity to speed network with other session participants as well as participate in a museum rally (a bunch of museums that partner with each other to set up stations for each group of visitors to participate in activities). In the museum rally, at one station we learned about horses from a horse skull; another was learning about circuits using a tiny light bulb and Play-Doh; and another one about butterflies and symmetry. 

During the conference, I would have liked it if I could attend multiple sessions at once. Also, while I was attending the session and looking back at the experience, I would like to have a way to visit online to get access to presentations of sessions I both attended and not have been able to attend so I would have access to resources I can refer to for reference in my museum work.  I really appreciated that I received the scholarship so I would have the opportunity to attend the MANY conference and connect with many museum professionals from across the state.  

Museum Memories: Long Island Part Two, Long Island Maritime Museum and The Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson

February 8, 2023

It has been a while since I wrote about my previous experiences in the museum field. I decided to revisit the memories and share more of what I experienced. This year marks the tenth year I have been working in the museum field. To read about the other experiences I have had, check out the links below. After my time at the Long Island Museum, I gained experience at the Long Island Maritime Museum and the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson.

For a brief time, I volunteered at the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson. Also referred to as Port Jefferson Historical Society, the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson is located in the downtown area of the village not too far from the Bridgeport Port Jefferson Ferry dock. The Historical Society operated a historic house museum called the Mather House Museum. While I was there, I provided both tours of the house and since I had just started training, I gave visitors an introduction to the history of the house before they started tours with another tour guide. The house not only was a historic house museum, but it also served as a place of residence a woman lived in part of the house, she paid rent, and part of my responsibilities was to sort through mail and leave her mail at a designated place for her to pick up. Also, I was responsible for counting and recording the number of donations made that day.  I volunteered at the Long Island Maritime Museum when the Historical Society of Greater Port Jefferson closed for the season.

    I became a volunteer at the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville, New York. During my time there, I worked in education, collections, volunteer, and visitor services. When school groups arrived at the museum, I taught students Long Island maritime history by guiding groups to each part of the museum campus to discuss the significance of each building and what is the connection to the overall narrative of Long Island maritime history. I also created word searches, crossword puzzles, and matching games to provide activities for kids to do during public programs and extra activities for school and spring vacation programs. I compiled information for the kids’ Bay Days summer discovery program to be mailed out to families looking for summer programs to participate in; before they were mailed, I placed insert information into the brochures and sealed them with stickers.

In addition to working within educational programs, I also worked on collections and volunteer services. I worked in the archives to update the collection list in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and transferring the data from the spreadsheet into the Past Perfect collections program. Also, I scanned books and photographs into Past Perfect to help preserve them. I also worked on organizing the volunteers’ sailing hour records for the boat they sail for visitors to ride on called the Priscilla while working at the visitor service desk. About sixty volunteers signed up to sail Priscilla and I went through each record between May and October of 2016 to record how many days each of the volunteers sailed.

While I was at the front desk, I answered phone calls, charged admission for museum exhibits, and ran the gift shop. I supervised the gallery in which the front desk was located and what was going on outside on the museum campus. Inside the gift shop, I kept track of the inventory as well as sold items from the shop; I made sure that at the beginning and at the end of the day I counted the cash drawer to keep it balanced, and have enough change for the transactions. At the end of the day, I recorded the admission and gift shop income for the day. I also worked during their Boat Burning event that takes place each October, and I collected donations during the event.

   I was able to continue to learn more about Long Island history in these experiences. In the past, I knew more about early American history and Victorian era history then on Long Island in addition to what I learned at the Long Island Museum I learned about maritime history.

Links:

http://portjeffhistorical.org/

https://www.limaritime.org/

Museum Memories: Long Island Part One

Museum Memories: Noah Webster House

Museum Memories: Connecticut Landmarks Historic Houses in Hartford

Museum Memories: Stanley-Whitman House

Museum Memories: Connecticut’s Old State House

Things To Do At Museums For Valentine’s Day

January 18, 2023

There are a number of museums that are celebrating Valentine’s Day in various ways. We know that Valentine’s Day has historic roots which may be hard to believe since there is a lot of commercialism surrounding it. Last year, I wrote about the history of Valentine’s Day and the link for that post can be found below. I created this small sample of museums that are having events honoring the holiday this year since the pandemic. These events are held to help raise money for museum operations.

1. Celebrate Valentine’s Day at the Museum of the City of New York https://www.mcny.org/valentinesday

The Museum of the City of New York is having a variety of events celebrating Valentine’s Day. For instance, there is a love-themed museum-wide scavenger hunt that involves interacting with the museum and other participants on social media starting on the Saturday before the holiday. Also, on the Saturday before Valentine’s Day, there is the Love Yourself Project which uses the origami heart to invite people to participate in this campaign that encourages people to discover what they love about themselves to plant a small seed and spread the consciousness of self-love. More events are listed in the link above.

2. Valentine’s Day Brunch & Film at the George Eastman Museum https://www.eastman.org/event/film-screenings-special-events/valentines-day-brunch-film-2023

The George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York is holding a catered Valentine’s Day Brunch and a film screening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring Audrey Hepburn, directed by Blake Edwards, on Sunday, February 12th. Reservations are required and there will be a raffle.

3. Family Valentine’s Day Papermaking Workshop Holland Museum https://hollandmuseum.org/event/mlk-day-celebration-2023-2/?event_date=2023-02-13

At the Holland Museum in Holland, Michigan, there is a free STEAM family program that explores the science of papermaking and provides the opportunity to make handmade paper valentines with environmental artist Sandra Hansen.

4. Valentine’s Day Sweetheart’s Dinner and Dance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library https://www.reaganfoundation.org/programs-events/events-calendar/valentines-day-sweethearts-dinner-and-dance-2023/

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California is holding its 15th annual Sweetheart’s Dinner and Dance on Valentine’s Day with seating for people celebrating the holiday under the wings of Air Force One. Live music and a four-course meal are provided. There are tables for two as well as reserved and preferred table seating available for groups of four or more.

5. Valentine’s Day at CMA Private Dining Experience at the Columbus Museum of Art https://www.columbusmuseum.org/?post_type=cma_event&p=39274&date=2023-02

The Columbus Museum of Art is having a dining experience at two different times on the evening of February 10th. In addition to a four-course meal, there is also a cocktail celebration with live music, light bites, and cocktails before exploring the open galleries at night. Tickets for the general public will go on sale on January 21st.

6. Her Art’s Desire | 2023 Valentine’s Day Celebration at the Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Garden https://hillwoodmuseum.org/events/her-arts-desire-2023-valentines-day-celebration

The Hillwood Estate, Museum, & Garden in Washington, D.C. has an evening event called Her Art’s Desire on Valentine’s Day where attendants can be the first to see the exhibit Determined Women: Collectors, Artists, and Designers at Hillwood. There is an open bar, delicious hors d’oeuvres, and dessert by Design Cuisine, and bid on exclusive items in the silent auction.

Related Links:

Valentine’s Day Celebrations in Museums

Public Historian Takes a Closer Look at the History of Valentine’s Day

Announcement: Changes to the Blog and Website

December 15, 2022

I wanted to let you all know that I will make a few changes in 2023.

You may have noticed that I have not been writing as many posts this year as I did in previous years. I became a staff member for the Three Village Historical Society where I have also been a part of their Education Committee for the past five years. Because of this, I have been busy in my new role and could not write as much as I previously did.

I plan to continue to produce content for all of you but it will not be as frequent as I did in the past. I am changing the schedule so I would post once or twice per month.

Also, I plan to create a separate funding option to help this blog and website grow. For instance, if enough funding is raised it would be possible to hire more writers to contribute to the blog. There will be more posts to come so stay tuned.

Thank you all for your patience and for continuing to visit my website.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Things to Do for Halloween at Museums and Historic Sites in 2022

October 20, 2022

Halloween is just around the corner! And today is my birthday. In honor of both Halloween and my birthday, I have compiled a list of things happening for Halloween this year at museums and historic sites. The list will include some locations in the United States and some locations in Europe. It is a sample of what is going on for the Halloween season. Also, I included links to previous blog posts I wrote about Halloween including the history of Halloween and of past events at museums.

Check out this list below:

  1. The Museum of Fright at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington:
    • On the day before Halloween, the Museum of Flight transforms into the Museum of Fright. There are Halloween-themed games and activities that would get visitors into the Halloween spirit. Some activities and events include astronaut ghoul search, freaky face painting, and the Monster Mash dance party. Children aged 17 and under who come wearing costumes will receive free museum admission for the day. For more information and the event schedule, click on the link here: https://www.museumofflight.org/Plan-Your-Visit/Calendar-of-Events/6066/the-museum-of-fright
  2. Halloween at the Whitney, Whitney Museum, New York, New York:
    • The Whitney Museum of Art has a few Halloween events leading up to the holiday. For instance, the New York Haunts Party is an after-hours Halloween celebration in which visitors can wear costumes. It is inspired by the theme based on their exhibit Edward Hopper’s New York, and visitors can see the exhibit after dark with exclusive gallery access and mini-tours. Specialty cocktails are also available. Also, there is a teen Halloween event called HallowTeen Night where they can come in costumes to enjoy live music, dancing, artist-led workshops, a spooky photo booth, snacks, and more. The Magical Masquerade Family Day is a family event that includes a mysterious scavenger hunt through the exhibit Edward Hopper’s New York and there is a chance to win exciting prizes. There are also photo-based mask-making in the Artspace and hands-on family artmaking activities throughout the Museum. For more details, check out the link below. https://whitney.org/halloween-2022
  3. Museum After Dark, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut
    • The New Britain Museum of American Art has a Halloween event called Museum After Dark and this year they will be hosting the event on two nights on October 28th and October 29th. It is an opportunity to dress in costume and pose in the Alter Ego Photo Booth, and complimentary snacks and pizza as well as free wine and draft beer are included with the ticket. Learn more in the link here: https://nbmaa.org/events/museum-after-dark-halloween-2022
  4. Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    • Eastern State Penitentiary, an abandoned 10-acre prison now open for tours, has an event from September 23rd until November 12th called Halloween Nights. It is an immersive experience featuring five haunted houses plus historic tours, themed bars and lounges, live entertainment, and more surprises not listed on the website. Interested in finding out more, check out the link below:
  5. Remington Haunting, Frederick Remington Art Museum, Ogdensburg, New York
  6. Haunted Hallway, Longway Planetarium, Flint, Michigan
    • There are a number of varied events happening for Halloween at the Longway Planetarium. Haunted Hallway, for instance, is an event happening from October 27-30, 2022 at 4:00pm to 7:00pm. The event is a family friendly haunt that will offer spooky fun in the black light hallway that is good for all ages and takes about ten minutes to walk through. If you want to learn more about this event and other events at the Planetarium, click on the link here: https://sloanlongway.org/halloween/
  7. Halloween in Paris Events, Paris, France
    • I found a post about various Halloween events in Paris including the tours in the Paris Catacombs. It is the world’s largest underground burial site. On the tours, visitors can learn the history and legends of the Catacombs from an expert guide as well as learning why the remains of over 6 million people were transported underground in the 18th century. Find out more about the Catacombs tours and other events happening in the link here: https://www.parisdiscoveryguide.com/halloween-in-paris.html
  8. The Best Halloween Destinations in Europe 2022
    • Another post I found described what they described as the best Halloween destinations in Europe. Some of the places they listed include but are not limited to Dublin, Ireland, Romania, Edinburgh, Scotland, Venice, Italy, and Prague, Czech Republic. Check out the full list here: https://glampinghub.com/blog/best-halloween-destinations-europe/

List of Previous Posts on Halloween:

The History of Halloween and How Museums Celebrate

Halloween in the Museums 2020

13 Things to Do in Museums for Halloween 2021

The History of Witchcraft: Witchcraft in Africa

September 15, 2022

       This is the second post in the history of witchcraft series I started last year. I included a link to the first post in the list below. Since I was more familiar with the history of witchcraft in Salem, Long Island, and the United Kingdom, I wanted to start my research in an area I am not familiar with on the history of witchcraft. The first places that people in general think of when witchcraft is discussed are Salem, Massachusetts, and Europe where the well-known witch trials took place. I decided to take a closer look at the history of witchcraft in Africa and find out what witchcraft was and is like on the continent. During my research, I decided to write about only a sample of witchcraft beliefs in African cultures for the sake of not making this post too long. I have included a list below of additional resources I have come across in my research.

To understand what witchcraft in Africa is it is important to learn what Africa itself is.  Africa is a continent with numerous countries encompassing the land mass. There are fifty-four countries altogether and four territories. Africa has over 3,000 protected areas, with 198 marine protected areas, 50 biosphere reserves, and 80 wetlands reserves. Since there are many countries and territories on the continent, governance varied per country, and a union was formed to provide the continent a unified representation for all of them. The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states. The Union was formed on June 26, 2001, and was officially established on July 9, 2002. It was originally located in Addis Ababa until July 2004 when the African Union’s Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, South Africa; the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights remained in Addis Ababa. People in Africa also recognize and practice various religious beliefs and rituals.

While Africans acknowledge a wide variety of religious beliefs, the majority of the people respect African religions or parts of them. However, in formal surveys or censuses, most people will identify with major religions that came from outside the continent, mainly through colonization. There are several reasons for this, the main one being the colonial idea that African religious beliefs and practices are not good enough. Religious beliefs and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are often a sensitive topic for governments with mixed religious populations. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam and Christianity are the two largest religions in Africa. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims, and 10% follow traditional religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, Baháʼí, or Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are non-religious. By learning about Africa, what the lands are like, and what the religious beliefs are, we can start to learn what the many beliefs there were about witchcraft itself.

There are some publications that discuss witchcraft in Africa. For instance, the Transafrican Journal of History released an article back in 1995 called “The Evolution and Essence of Witchcraft in Pre-Colonial African Societies” that mentions the growth of interest in comparing and contrasting witchcraft within Africa itself and in Medieval Europe. This article articulates a number of historical accounts on the origins and distinctive features of witchcraft in pre-colonial Africa, and offers an appraisal of some poignant aspects such as magnitude, ramifications, and controlling witchcraft in traditional settings. It intends to place witchcraft in the proper perspective as a socially constructed system in many pre-scientific societies. Also, the article elaborates on the role of anti-witchcraft specialists (waganga) whose expertise and significance were deliberately misconstrued by over-zealous colonial administrators and pioneering Christian missionaries.  They describe how witches were viewed at least in some African cultures; some cultures believe witches willfully seek and do harm while other cultures believe witches are not aware of what they are doing.

According to the article, witches are believed in some African cultures to assemble in cannibal covens at graveyards or around a fire to feast on the blood they extract from their victims, like vampires. The article also shares that in many African cultures witches are believed to act unconsciously and are unaware of the harm they cause since witches are driven by irrepressible urges to act malevolently. It is thus easy for those accused of witchcraft, but who are not conscious of wishing anyone ill, to assume that they unknowingly did what is attributed to them. This, along with the effects of suggestion and torture, in a world where people take the reality of witchcraft for granted, goes far to explain the striking confessions of guilt that is so widely reported in Africa and elsewhere and that are otherwise hard to comprehend. While those identified as witches may believe they are unconscious agents, it is not the view of those who feel victimized by them.

In addition to the article, I also read “The legality of witchcraft allegations in colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe” written by Fortune Sibanda which is a chapter from the book called Religion, Law and Security in Africa edited by M. Christian Green, T. Jeremy Gunn, and Mark Hill. The chapter tackles questions such as How legal or illegal are the witchcraft accusations in the public and private domains in colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe? For some context, Zimbabwe is a country located in southern Africa, and was known as Rhodesia before the country gained independence in 1980 following a long period of colonial rule and a 15-year period of white-dominated minority rule. The chapter discusses a study that was conducted to examine witchcraft accusations, and it discusses what witchcraft means to the people in Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole.

     Sibanda pointed out that African Traditional Religion (ATR) accepts the existence of witches in societies where some people practice uroyi (witchcraft) and is not a myth contrary to the stance adopted by Western missionaries and colonial administrators from Europe who questioned the reality and existence of witches. Also, Sibanda’s chapter discussed the two important aspects of witchcraft in the colonial and postcolonial contexts which were socio-religious and legal. She stated in the chapter that witchcraft is largely regarded as a reality in Zimbabwe and Africa at large by traditionalists and traditional courts, a position that was denied through colonial legislation; and the work of traditional healers and their medicines were also considered to be witchcraft at law. The legal flaws have persisted into the postcolonial times, in spite of the later amendments. Witchcraft accusations entail some cultural, social, political, and legal implications. Some cases of witchcraft accusations were highly gendered and manifested as political witch-hunts bent on humiliating and eliminating political rivals through hate speech, framing, and claims-making. The study concluded that the legality of witchcraft accusations in postcolonial times is marred by the legal flaws and selective application of the witchcraft law replicating the colonial legacy that sought to promote Christianity at the expense of African Indigenous Religion in Zimbabwe.

The publications previously discussed in this post are examples of how witchcraft is viewed in parts of Africa. While this post does not cover the entire continent’s views of witchcraft, I included links that refer to the history of witchcraft in Africa, witchcraft in general, and the resources I used to write this post. I also included a link to a previous post I wrote about the history of witchcraft as a start to taking a closer look at this history.

Check out the links below on witchcraft in Africa and more.

List:

What is Witchcraft? Taking a Closer Look at the History of Witchcraft: https://wp.me/p8J8yQ-1wg

“The Evolution and Essence of Witchcraft in Pre-Colonial African Societies”, Transafrican Journal of History Vol. 24 (1995), pp. 162-177 (16 pages).

Sibanda, Fortune. “The legality of witchcraft allegations in colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe”, Religion, Law and Security in Africa, edited by M. Christian Green, T. Jeremy Gunn, Mark Hill, African Sun Media, SUN MeDIA. (2018) pp. 297-313.

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/jean-fontaine-on-african-religion-and-witchcraft/

https://www.routledge.com/Witchcraft-and-Sorcery-in-East-Africa/Middleton-Winter/p/book/9780415852135

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328661

https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.titles.epl?tquery=Witchcraft

https://www.sunypress.edu/p-5511-encounters-with-witchcraft.aspx

https://www.brookings.edu/research/good-and-inclusive-governance-is-imperative-for-africas-future/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/witchcraft/Witchcraft-in-Africa-and-the-world

https://mellenpress.com/book/Studies-in-Witchcraft-Magic-War-and-Peace-in-Africa/6769/

https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Geologic-history

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malleus-maleficarum?utm_medium=mendel-homepage&utm_source=oyr&utm_campaign=oyr-1&utm_term=20220324

https://www.britannica.com/bioraphy/Matthew-Hopkins?utm_medium=mendel-homepage&utm_source=oyr&utm_campaign=oyr-2&utm_term=20220324

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/africa.htm

https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/21/zimbabwes-struggle-for-liberation/

https://www.britannica.com/place/Zimbabwe

South African History Online: https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/zimbabwe

Tie Breaker Poll: Fountains Abbey or Harriet Tubman National Historical Park

April 14, 2022

We have a tie! Both of them will be discussed in the next couple of Museum/Historic Sites Impressions blog posts. I would like to know between the two of them which one would you like to learn more about first? Be sure to answer the poll below. Thank you!

Poll closes May 4th at 11:59 PM EST.

The History of St. Patrick’s Day and How Museums Are Celebrating

March 10, 2022

While we celebrate women during the month of March, we also celebrate Irish heritage on the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. It was once known as a religious holiday, the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick. The origins of St. Patrick are varied according to Thomas O’Loughlin’s article “St. Patrick: The Legend and the Bishop” in History Ireland. O’Loughlin investigated the accounts of St. Patrick, and while some details are varied it is agreed that St. Patrick was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave, then escaped and returned sometime later to convert Ireland to Christianity. There were many legends that emerged about St. Patrick including he drove the snakes out of Ireland and used the shamrock to explain the Trinity (in Christianity, Trinity refers to the Father-God, Son-Jesus, and the Holy Spirit/Ghost). Emigrants, specifically to the United States, transformed St. Patrick’s Day into a secular holiday to celebrate all things Irish which led to the holiday we know today. To learn more about St. Patrick’s Day, I included a link below the list.

The following list is a random selection of events and places to visit especially during the holiday. St. Patrick’s Day takes place on a Thursday this year, and while we are still going through a pandemic some of the events that are occurring to honor and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day are virtual.

  1. Tenement Museum’s Virtual Tour: The Moore Family

The Tenement Museum is located in New York City. They are having a virtual tour that is honoring both Women’s History and Irish American History Month by exploring the story of an Irish immigrant family, Joseph and Bridget Moore and their children, who lived at 97 Orchard Street in the 1860s. Visitors will learn how Irish immigrants navigated the diverse city, maintained pride, and built a community in Lower Manhattan. To sign up, click on the link here: https://www.tenement.org/events/special-virtual-tour-the-moore-family/

2. Visit the Irish Hunger Memorial https://www.nyc-arts.org/organizations/2436/irish-hunger-memorial

   Another place to visit in New York City especially during St. Patrick’s Day is the Irish Hunger Memorial that was commissioned by the Battery Park City Authority to raise public awareness of the events that led to the Irish famine of 1845 to 1852, and to encourage efforts to address both current and future hunger worldwide. The memorial represents a rural Irish landscape with an abandoned stone cottage, stone walls, fallow potato fields, and the flora on the north Connacht wetlands. It contains stones from each of Ireland’s 32 counties, and is elevated on a limestone plinth.

3. Boston Irish Tourism Association https://irishboston.org/march.php

     If you are in the Boston area, check out the Boston Irish Tourism Association’s website for events throughout the month of March and St. Patrick’s Day Parade dates and times in New England and Dublin, Ireland.

4. Long Island Children’s Museum

At the Long Island Children’s Museum, there is a program known as stART (Story + Art) that combines reading both children’s classics and new stories and creating book-inspired crafts. On St. Patrick’s Day, they will be reading Joan Holub’s “Hooray for St. Patrick’s Day”, learning about the ways to celebrate the holiday, and creating leprechaun hats to wear home. To learn more and sign up for the class (space is limited), check out the link here: https://www.licm.org/calendar/event/start-story-art-3-17-22/

5. Children’s Museum of Manhattan

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan has a couple of events on St. Patrick’s Day. The first one is the opportunity to contribute to a mural in the CMOM Mural Wall: Colors of the Emerald Isle. Then there is a crafts activity where kids can create shamrock wreaths using recycled paper. More information can be found here: https://cmom.org/cmom-programs/

6. Garde Arts Center, New London, CT https://gardearts.org/events/the-high-kings-2/

On March 20th, there is a performance by the group The High Kings hosted by Garde Arts Center and co-presented with the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. The High Kings return to the Garde to celebrate over a decade of sell-out shows and topping the Irish Album and World Music Charts. To find out more, visit the Garde Arts Center event page.

7. Museum of Early Trades & Crafts, Madison, NJ https://metc.org/event/st-patricks-day-celebration/

This museum has a St. Patrick’s Day Celebration on March 12th that includes live music, dancing, and singing. Also, there is an interactive game for kids to “find the pot of gold” using QR codes in the museum’s exhibits.

8. Festival Quater at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks https://www.irishcentral.com/events/st-patricks-festival-launch-schedule

     In Dublin, there is a day-to-night festival called Festival Quarter at the National Museum of Ireland for all ages. There are family-friendly adventures including but not limited to performance, theatre, film screenings, interactive games, and science shows. At night, adults can enjoy a food village, bars, and hangout areas with some events including but not limited to Irish contemporary and traditional music, performance, comedy, literature, and dance.

9. Medici Museum of Art, Ohio

The Medici Museum of Art has an adult St. Patrick’s Day Sip & Paint on March 15th in which adults can paint a St. Patrick’s Day inspired artwork as well as sip drinks and eat snacks. If you are interested in this program, take a look at the link here: https://www.medicimuseum.art/upcomingevents/adult-st-patricks-day

There is a kids version and tickets can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kids-st-patricks-day-sip-paint-tickets-256298554877?aff=efbeventtix

10. The Heritage Museum & Cultural Center, St. Joseph, MI https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-st-patricks-day-at-the-heritage-with-kennedys-kitchen-tickets-271148832457

      At the Heritage Museum & Cultural Center, they collaborated with the Lake Michigan Music Concert Series to welcome the group Kennedy’s Kitchen. There is a cash bar that features Guiness, Bell’s Two-Hearted, Jameson, Bailey’s, wine, and snacks.

       Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Resources for St. Patrick’s Day history:

O’Loughlin, Thomas, “St. Patrick: The Legend and the Bishop”, History Ireland, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan. – Feb., 2006), pp. 16-19.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saint-Patricks-Day

       

Public Historian Takes a Closer Look at the History of Valentine’s Day

February 10, 2022

Valentine’s Day is on a Monday this year and it is important to understand that while it seems like a more commercial-founded holiday this holiday actually has historical roots.  I decided to take a closer look into the history of Valentine’s Day. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the true origins of the holiday are vague at best; for instance, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia which was a celebration of the coming of spring held in mid-February. Lupercalia was also known as a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

          It became St. Valentine’s Day towards the end of the 5th century when Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and was often attributed to replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day; there were a number of Saint Valentines in the church, who all became martyrs, who the holiday was possibly named for. One example is that it is believed it was named for a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Another legend stated that he defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to prevent husbands from war. The holiday was not celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century.

            Formal valentines appeared in the 1500s, and by the 1700s individuals were using commercially printed cards. The first commercial valentines in the United States were printed in the mid-1800s. On the Valentines, they commonly depict Cupid, the Roman god of love, along with hearts. Birds also became a symbol of the day since it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February. The holiday is popular in the United States as well as in Britain, Canada, and Australia, and it is also celebrated in other countries, including Argentina, France, Mexico, and South Korea. In the Philippines it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date. The holiday has expanded to expressions of affection among relatives and friends.

          At the time I wrote this post, I did not find many academic studies written in books and journals about Valentine’s Day. What I did come across were articles and a list of children’s Valentine’s Day books. I included links to books on Valentine’s Day in the list below. There was an article from American Quarterly written by Vivian R. Pollak about Emily Dickinson’s Valentines. Emily Dickinson was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts who wrote almost 1,800 poems and of those poems fewer than a dozen were published during her life; scholars identified her writing period was between 1858 and 1865. Pollak’s article, published in 1974, discussed her early works including two humorous Valentines as well as the history of noncommercial Valentines during the 19th century, and argued that Dickinson was writing poetry before 1858. According to the Emily Dickinson Museum website, these early writings were published anonymously in the early 1850s. The first Valentine was referred to as “Magnum bonum, harem scarum” which was a valentine letter published in Amherst College’s Indicator in February 1850, and the second Valentine was published in Springfield Daily Republican titled “A Valentine” called “‘Sic transit gloria mundi’” on February 20, 1852.

      A periodical about St. Valentine and English poet Geoffery Chaucer in Jack B. Oruch’s “St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February (appeared in Speculum in The Medieval Academy) came from The Wilson Quarterly was called “The First Valentine”. It discusses how Oruch pointed out the first time St. Valentine was connected with romance occurs in Chaucer’s poem “Parlement of Foules” when Nature summons the birds on “seynt Valentynes day” and commands them to choose mates. Chaucer and other writers’ work in the 14th century and after led to associating St. Valentine and Valentine’s day with romance and love.

      In the end, Valentine’s Day is about celebrating the people you love in your lives including family, friends, pets, and romantic partners.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!!

Thank you for reading! If you would like to support my book project, check out my Buy Lindsey a Coffee page to learn more.

Links and Sources:

Vivian R. Pollak, “Emily Dickenson’s Valentines”, American Quarterly, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Mar., 1974), pp. 60-78.

Emily Dickinson Museum:

https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/

The First Valentine The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring, 1982), pp. 37-38.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Day

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine#ref1290121

https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2

https://www.byrdsbooks.com/book/9781638786337

https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/valentines-day-books-for-kids