(Peterboro, NY – May 2014) The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro will open for the 2014 season Saturday, May 17
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 for which NAHOF won the Abolitionist Map of America Pin Drive Contest.
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 C. community with ongoing formal and informal programs, and is surrounded with historical sites open for the weekend. The Smithfield Fire Department will host a chicken barbeque 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 1834-44 at the Smithfield Community Center on Saturday, July 26 at 2 p.m. The Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department barbeques chicken for its annual Peterboro Hometown Day Sunday, July 27.
The fifth annual Peterboro Emancipation Days begins at the Gerrit Smith Estate, Saturday, Aug. 2 at 10 a.m. 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, her mother and aunt, descendents of Solomon Northup, will join in the afternoon to share the impact of the movie ’12 Years a Slave.’
For more information, visit www.civilwarweekend.sca-peterboro.org, gerritsmith.org, call 315.280.8828 or email mail@sca-peterboro.org.