The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) in Peterboro, Madison County, N.Y. will open for the 2014 season on Saturday, May 17 and will be open from 1 – 5 pm seven days per week until Sunday, August 17. The sites will then be open on weekends until September 21 from 1 – 5 pm.
The Gerrit Smith Estate has interior and exterior exhibits on freedom seekers, Gerrit Smith, Smith’s wealth, philanthropy and family, and the Underground Railroad. This site is on the national, state, and county Underground Railroad Trail. NAHOF has the Abolition Hall of Fame exhibit and the chronology of American Abolition from the Colonial Period to Reconstruction. An exhibit on women in the anti-slavery movement was added to the NAHOF museum in 2013.
In conjunction with the first weekend of the New York State Path through History initiative, on June 6 and 7 the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will be providing free viewings of The Abolitionists, a three part PBS series released in 2013.
The second week of Path through History is on the same weekend as the 22nd Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend – Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15. The educational weekend will be commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War with particular attention to Peterboro’s connections to the nation’s conflict in 1864. The weekend military and civilian encampment on the hamlet green is a living 19th century community with ongoing formal and informal programs, and is surrounded with historical sites open for the weekend. The Smithfield Fire Department will barbeque chicken on Saturday and the Peterboro United Methodist Church will flip pancakes Sunday morning. The Deli on the Green will be open extended hours to provide food, drinks, and supplies throughout the weekend.
On the evening of June 21 and the afternoon of June 22 Hugh C. Humphreys will direct and narrate The Music Room at the Earlville Opera House as a fund-raiser for the Opera House and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum. At 7 p.m. July 19, at the Smithfield Community Center, the Peterboro Area Museum will host a presentation by Russ Oechsle on The Clock and the Clockworks of the Smithfield Community Center.
Althea A. Connolly presents her research and signs her book The Seceders: Religious Conviction and the Abolitionist Movement in the Town of Manlius 1834-1844 at the Smithfield Community Center on Saturday, July 26 at 2 pm. The Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department barbeques chicken for its annual Peterboro Hometown Day on Sunday, July 27.
The 5th Annual Peterboro Emancipation Days begins at the Gerrit Smith Estate, Saturday, August 2 at 10:00 with the Assembly, Gathering, and the Walk to the Peterboro Cemetery to lay wreaths at the graves of a person born in slavery who died free, and Gerrit Smith, who fostered the freedom of many persons.Melissa Howell and her mother and aunt, descendents of Solomon Northup, will join in the afternoon to share the impact of the movie Twelve Years a Slave.
In recognition of Equality Day, Suzanne B. Spring PhD will facilitate a program of readings and speeches performed by students and activists from Colgate University at 2 pm Sunday, August 24 at the Smithfield Community Center. Women’s history will be further recognized at the Annual Elizabeth Smith Miller In the Kitchen Bloomer Tea at the Community Center Sunday, September 21 at 12:30 pm. (Reservations required.)
The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum will hold its Commemoration Weekend on October 25 and 26. Abolitionists Elijah Parrish Lovejoy, Myrtilla Miner, John Rankin, and Jonathan Walker who were inducted in 2013 will be honored during the afternoon symposium and the evening ceremonies unveiling the banners that will hang in the Hall of Fame. Included in the weekend are the Annual Anti-Slavery Dinner catered by The Copper Turret of Morrisville, and special tours and exhibits.
The Peterboro Mercantile, which is open during the site hours, and everyday online, will give attention in November to 2007 abolitionist inductee Lydia Maria Child who wrote Over the River and Through the Woods. In December the Mercantile will remember George W. Putnam, a resident of Peterboro, who was secretary to Charles Dickens before Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. 2013 concludes with the Emancipation Watch Night on December 31, 2014.
For more information and updates visit civilwarweekend.sca-peterboro.org, www.gerritsmith.org, and www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org, call 315-280-8828, or e-mail mail@sca-peterboro.org.
The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark in Peterboro NY will open for the 2014 season on Saturday, May 17 and will be open from 1 – 5 pm seven days per week until Sunday, August 17. The sites will then be open on weekends until September 21 from 1 – 5 pm. The Gerrit Smith Estate has interior and exterior exhibits on freedom seekers, Gerrit Smith, Smith’s wealth, philanthropy and family, and the Underground Railroad. This site is on the national, state, and county Underground Railroad Trail.
National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) in Peterboro NY will open for the 2014 season on Saturday, May 17 and will be open from 1 – 5 pm seven days per week until Sunday, August 17. The site will then be open on weekends until September 21 from 1 – 5 pm. NAHOF has the Abolition Hall of Fame exhibit and the chronology of American Abolition from the Colonial Period to Reconstruction. An exhibit on women in the anti-slavery movement was added to the NAHOF museum in 2013. Exhibits from the New York State Museum exhibit The Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War will also be at NAHOF in 2013.
The Civil War statue given to the people of Peterboro by Michigan governor Aaron Bliss stands ready in the center of the Hamlet of Peterboro for the opening of the 22nd Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 14, 2014. Bliss was helped in his escape from Confederate prisons by Billy Smith, a fugitive from slavery, who lived out his life in Peterboro. The two men will be commemorated by relatives at the opening ceremony.
Photos: Above, the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, and below, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum.
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