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Winslow House

Winslow House 2009 Program of Events

Tuesday Morning Coffee Hour Series:

• George Daughan, author of If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy, from the Revolution to the War of 1812. Tuesday, June 23rd

Conventional wisdom has held that the United States Navy began in 1790.  Historian George Daughan instead traces its beginnings back to the Revolutionary War, to its role against the Barbary Pirates, through four presidential administrations, and how the Navy’s importance during the War of 1812 showed that the best way to avoid a war was to prepare for one.

• Robert Smith, discussing John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the “Quasi-War” of 1798. Tuesday, July 7th

 
An undeclared war between the United States and France, the “Quasi-War” was the result of disagreements over treaties and the America’s status as a neutral in the wars of the French Revolution. These military problems also created dissension and a falling out between President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, leading to a rise in political parties. Worcester State College professor and historian Robert Smith will examine this nearly-forgotten but critical episode in the formation of the American republic.

• Paul Della Valle, author of Massachusetts Troublemakers: Rebels, Reformers and Radicals from the Bay State. Tuesday, July 21st

 
Stirring up a little trouble (or a lot!) has a long and illustrious history in the state of Massachusetts. From the famous figures to the obscure, from the patriot Sam Adams to bearded Joe Palmer, the twenty men and women profiled in this collection of historical biographies all dared to advocate for some form of freedom, some measure of liberty.

Revolutionary War patriot and printer Isaiah Thomas proved that indeed the pen is mightier than the sword. In the same conflict, Deborah Samson so believed in America that she masqueraded as a man to join the struggle against the British. In 1845, Margaret Fuller published a book that later seen as an early blueprint for the women’s rights movement. In Massachusetts Troublemakers, Sterling, Massachusetts, author Paul Della Valle brings these characters to life with colorful tales of rabble-rousing and pot-stirring.

• Fred Dunford—“Secrets in the Sand: The Archaeology and the Pre-History of Cape Cod —Tuesday, August 4th

Wing Island, near Brewster, Massachusetts, is named for John Wing—the first English settler to live in that part of Cape Cod, and was part of the territory that the original Plimoth colonists reserved for themselves. It is also a microcosm of the archaeology of the Cape and provides clues of what the past of the region contains. Archaeologist and professor Fred Dunford examines nearly 9,000 years of findings on Wing Island, how these findings tell the story of prehistoric Cape Cod, and how it demonstrates a slice of what the Cape was like prior to European settlement.

•  Seth Shulman—author of The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret. Tuesday, August 18th

Although Alexander Graham Bell is widely accepted as the father of the telephone (despite the fact that rival inventor Elisha Gray submitted a similar claim the same day Bell filed his patent), author Seth Schulman provides intriguing evidence questioning if the scales were deliberately tipped in Alexander's favor. Was the venerable inventor party to theft from Gray's own research? Or are such accusations merely sour grapes from a bitterly contested legal battle? Fraught with controversy, conspiracy, and possible chicanery, the question of who is the real inventor of the telephone spins real-life Da Vinci Code drama around one of the most influential inventions of the modern era