The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Presents: Bridging the Past and Present Speaker Series
HADLEY— The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will present Bridging the Past and Present, a series of virtual conversations with five scholars on the history of Hadley and the Porter-Phelps-Huntington family, starting Wednesday, June 16 at 5pm. All of these talks will be free and open to the public. This series is made possible by a grant from the Bridge Street Fund, a special initiative of Mass Humanities to enable open access to local history. Kicking off the program on June 16 will be Entangled Lives: A Conversation on Women and Work at the PPH House in the Past and the Present, a conversation with Marla R. Miller, author of Entangled Lives: Labor, Livelihood and Landscapes of Change in Rural Massachusetts (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) and Karen Sánchez-Eppler.
Miller is a University of Massachusetts Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program. Tapping archival resources, material culture, and the built environment, in several books and more than a dozen articles Miller has surfaced and explored social relations of work among Black, Native American, and white women in rural New England. She has also recently come to study the role of “past keepers” such as authors, museum-makers, and archivists in preserving and interpreting history. Her book The Needle’s Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution (University of Massachusetts Press, 2006) won the Costume Society of America’s Millia Davenport Publication Award for the best book in the field for that year. Following that, her book Betsy Ross and the Making of America (Holt, 2010)—a scholarly biography of that much-misunderstood early American craftswoman—was a finalist for the Cundill Prize in History at McGill University, the world’s largest non-fiction historical literature prize. It was also named to the Washington Post’s “Best of 2010” list, one of the many awards and accolades Professor Miller’s extensive work has received. A short biography of gownmaker Rebecca Dickinson appeared in the Westview Press series Lives of American Women in summer 2013. Miller also consults with a wide variety of museums and historic sites in New England and beyond; in 2012, a report, “Imperiled Promise”: The State of History in the National Park Service, produced with co-authors Anne Whisnant, Gary Nash & David Thelen, for the Organization of American Historians, won the National Council on Public History award for excellence in consulting. Karen Sánchez-Eppler, a Professor of American Studies and English, will talk with Professor Miller about her research and methods, drawing connections with how women’s lives continue to entangle today.
Professor Sánchez-Eppler will then present the second talk of the series, School Letters: Teaching with the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers on July 7. Throughout the summer, we will welcome scholars William Hosley, Anna Plummer, and Ben Mutschler to speak on topics ranging from the documentary photography of Clifton Johnson to the deep friendships of local women to the world of illness in early New England. To see more details about these events and to access the Zoom links, click here or visit the museum’s website at https://www.pphmuseum.org/bridging.
The Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum’s summer 2021 programs are funded, in part, by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state Agency; the Amherst Cultural Councils, local agencies, supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council; Mass Humanities Bridge Street Fund; Easthampton Savings Bank, Gage-Wiley & Co. and with the generous support of many local businesses and the public.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum will remain closed for onsite public programming for its 2021 season to protect the health and safety of the community and its employees. However, the museum grounds and scenic byway trail systems remain open for your use and enjoyment. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive (Route 47) in Hadley, two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47. The house, which remains unchanged since the family’s occupancy, tells the story of six generations of prominent Hadley residents. The family, prosperous traders turned farmers and prominent members of the local government and social scene, embodied a consistently progressive social consciousness. For further information about tours or other programs, please call the Museum at (413) 584-4699 or visit our website at http://www.pphmuseum.org.
If you missed the talk, you can watch a recording of it here!