Two programs will be held at the Jamaica Plain Library. The programs are as follows:
The Boston Suffragists
Women – and men – from Boston were very active in the movement to gain the vote for women. Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Clara Barton and others gave speeches, wrote articles, and marched in parades during the almost seventy year struggle. Come and listen to present day Bostonians as they read from these writings and speeches that reveal women’s determination to be able to vote in order to participate fully in the political life of the country.
Judith Kalaora, from History at Play, will be a part of the program. Ms. Kalaora portrays a number of famous women through living history performances, including Deborah Sampson, Christa McAuliffe, and Hedy Lamarr. We are very pleased to have her join us in the role of Lucy Stone, one of the most important figures in the woman suffrage movement.
Saturday, March 30 at 1:00pm, JP Branch Library, 30 South Street. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Co-sponsored by the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail and the JPHS to celebrate Women’s History Month.
Cultivating Legacies: NE Women in Horticulture & Landscape Design
Women are often overlooked when we discuss individuals who had great impact on botany and landscape design of the 20th century. The Arnold Arboretum was one of the few institutions in America that encouraged women to study with and be mentored by established botanical and landscape design professionals.
Mary (Polly) Wakefield (image above), Eleanor Cabot Bradley, Martha Brookes Hutcheson, Marian Roby Case and Marjorie Russell Sedgwick developed exceptional personal garden spaces and designed outstanding professional landscapes, and were also very active in the conservation and preservation of appreciable New England open space. This seminar highlights these women’s personal legacies: significant plant collections and garden design within beloved public spaces. Presentations illuminate these women and their roles in creating and protecting New England landscapes, the discernible role that the Arnold Arboretum played in these endeavors, and how we can continue to raise the visibility of these special places. Program includes an associated exhibition in the Arnold Arboretum’s historic Library Reading Room and light refreshments. Saturday, March 9, 9:30am–1:00pm Fee $50 Register atmy.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
Though arguably America’s most historic city, Boston also claims its share of little-known events. Our colonial past saw riotous mobs celebrating their hatred of the pope in an annual celebration called Pope’s Night; William Monroe Trotter, champion of civil rights at the turn of the last century, published the independent African American newspaper the Boston Guardian; In 1991, a centuries-long turf war played out on the streets of quiet Chinatown, ending in the massacre of five men in a back alley. The cover of the book features Amelia Earhart who got a flying start in Boston. In her new book, author and historian Dina Vargo shines light into the cobwebbed corners of Boston’s hidden history.
Thursday, March 21, 6:30pm, Jamaica Plain Branch of the Boston Public Library, 30 South Street.