Hawn Memorial Library Summer Line Up in Clayton

The American Arts and Crafts Movement in New York State

Wed. July 30 @ 7PM

The American Arts and Crafts Movement, or ‘mission,’ gained popularity as a decorative style beginning in 1900, and by 1920 had gone out of style. Arts and Crafts, however, was more than simply a decorative style: it was also a philosophy, an ethos, a way of living, and significantly, an enormous business. Artists and manufacturers of objects in the Arts and Crafts style - furniture, ceramics, metal, lighting, textiles, jewelry - found like-minded creators in a few U.S. locations. Among the most significant centers of creativity for Arts and Crafts was New York State.
Presented by:

Dr. Bruce A. Austin

Chair, Professional and Technical Communication, Rochester Institute of Technology

Dr. Austin is Chairman and Professor of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology. He served as organizer and curator for the exhibition ‘The Arts and Crafts Movement in Western New York: 1900 - 1920.’ He writes often and for a variety of publications about the Arts and Crafts Movement.

North Star Shining: New York State’s Freedom Trail — An Illustrated Journey Along the Underground Railroad Wed. Aug. 6 @ 7 PM.

New York State, and especially upstate’s old ‘burned-over’ district, was fertile soil for the flowering of abolitionism. This illustrated talk places the story of the Underground Railroad in the context of the religious and reform movements of the pre-Civil War period, including endeavors such as the temperance crusade and the women’s rights campaign. Frederick Douglass, Gerrit Smith, Harriet Tubman, Beriah Green and many others come to center stage, as do important events such as the ‘Jerry Rescue’ in Syracuse in 1851. Audiences are encouraged to share their local stories of ‘Freedom’s Trail.’

Presented by:

Dr. Milton C. Sernett

Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and History, Syracuse University

Dr. Milton C. Sernett retired in 2005 after thirty years at Syracuse University. He taught courses in African American Studies, History and Religion. He has published six books and numerous articles and essays, many of them dealing with American abolitionism, the Underground Railroad, and African American history. He is the author of Abolition’s Axe: Beriah Green and the Oneida Institute, and of North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom. Duke University is publishing Dr. Sernett’s latest book: Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History.

Hawn Memorial Library’s

Summer Adult Program Series

All programs are free and open to the public.

The entire series of quality speakers has been possible due to the generosity of sponsorship by the New York Council for the Humanities, Speakers in the Humanities.

‘One Is Not Fond of Overripe Pears’: Conduct Literature and the Call for ‘True Womanhood’ Aug. 20 @ 7 PM.

This presentation will address cultural assumptions about ‘appropriate’ conduct and appearance of women in America from the late nineteenth century through World War II. Through an examination of literary depictions of women, social etiquette guides, medical advice books, and training manuals for male supervisors of women workers, Knight will discuss the pressure placed on women to attain beauty, practice deference, and exercise self-control.

Presented by:

Dr. Denise D. Knight

Professor of English, State University of New York, Cortland

Denise D. Knight is a Professor of English at the State University of New York, Cortland, where she specializes in nineteenth-century American literature. She is the author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction (1997), and editor of The Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1994), as well as volumes of Gilman’s poetry and fiction. Knight received SUNY Chancellor’s awards for Excellence in Teaching and Excellence in Scholarship in 2002.

For information on these or any other programs at the library, please call 315-686-3762 or go to our website at: www.nc3r.org/clayton.