(Canastota, NY – Sept. 2015) This year, the Canastota Canal Town Museum and the Public Library are holding two Canalside Talks in the fall and two talks in the spring.
These events are free and open to the public.
On Wednesday Sept. 23, Dr. Norman K. Dann, historian and educator, will discuss the subject of his latest book on short-lived ornithologist and taxidermist Greene Smith, at the Canastota Public Library, 102 W. Center St. at 7 p.m.
The all too-brief life of Greene Smith is a story of trials and triumphs. From his lifelong struggle to please a strict father, to his brush with death in the brutal Battle of the Crater during the Civil War, to his pioneering work in the preservation of hundreds of birds, Greene Smith walked a path few others could claim as a naturalist, an ornithologist and an outdoorsman.
In his biography, “Greene Smith and the Wildlife,” Dann researched family letters, military records, Greene’s ornithological writings and records about the Bird House. He uncovered not only Smith the scientist but also Smith the troubled son of a famous father, whose unhappy childhood led to a “wild” manhood of drink and misadventure that helped to bring him to an early grave.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, Tony Wonderley, Curator of Collections at the Oneida Community Mansion House will give an illustrated introduction of the Oneida Community.