(Peterboro, Smithfield) The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are open for the 2013 season and will close Sunday, Sept. 22. Both sites will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. on weekends, for special events and by appointment.
This year’s programs include:
Sunday, July 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The sites will be open for the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department’s Peterboro Hometown Day.
Saturday, Aug. 3: The first day of Emancipation Weekend, Paul Mercer, senior librarian at the New York State Library will speak on Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, followed by the Smithfield historian speaking on the African Americans from Peterboro/ Smithfield who served in the Civil War. On Sunday, Emancipation Day continues with attention to Rev. Samuel Harrison, who attended Gerrit Smith’s Manual Labor School. Harrison was the Chaplain of the 54th Mass during the Civil War – the military unit of film Glory fame.
Sunday, Aug. 25, 2 p.m.: Peterboro recognizes Equality Day with Norman K. Dann, Ph.D., speaking on his new book, “Cousins of Reform: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Gerrit Smith.”
Sunday, Sept. 22: The annual In the Kitchen Bloomer Tea will be held honoring Elizabeth Smith Miller on the very day of her birthday.
Saturday, Oct. 19: Elijah Parrish Lovejoy, Myrtilla Miner, John Rankin and Jonathan Walker will be inducted into the National Abolition Hall of Fame at the Colgate University Upstate Institute symposia and at ceremonies directed by Hugh C. Humphreys in Peterboro. The following day, 2005 inductee Harriet Tubman will be honored during her centenary year with programs by scholar Milton C. Sernett PhD. author of Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History, a Tubman documentary by Linda Robertson at Hobart William Smith, and by relatives of “Aunt Harriet.”
Online shopping programs close out the year with attention in November to Peterboro’s connection to Lydia Maria Child, author of Over the River, and in December with Charles Dickens’ connection to Peterboro.
A new installation of 26 exterior exhibits explains the Gerrit Smith Estate, which is a site on the National Park Service Network to Freedom (the national Underground Railroad Trail). The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are both sites on the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
To volunteer in 2013 for the sites, projects and programs, call 315.684.3262.
For updates and more information, call 315.280.8828 or email info@gerritsmith.org or nahofm1835@gmail.com.