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Welcome to the
Historical Sites & Societies Enewsletter, compiled on a monthly
basis. Please send your information to valerie@tlgv.org by February 15th with the subject line
"For Historical E-News" to be included in the next
edition. Please note that items for our TLGV Online Calendar of
Events must be submitted seperately.
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The Last Green Valley
111 Main St.
Danielson, CT 06239
860-774-3300
valerie@tlgv.org
TLGV
News
CT Governor Malloy recently appointed TLGV Executive
Director & CEO, Charlene Cutler, to the Connecticut Historic
Preservation Council. The Historic Preservation Council, which
includes 12 citizen-volunteer members appointed by the Governor for
a maximum of two four-year terms, advises the Historic Preservation
Office of the Connecticut Department of Economic & Community
Development on 16 critical historic preservation functions. It is
also tasked with working directly with the Office of the Attorney
General to prevent the "unreasonable destruction" of properties
listed on, or under consideration for listing on, the National
Register of Historic Places; reviewing and approving requests to
perform work on properties on which the State of Connecticut holds
preservation restrictions; providing a model ballot for use by clerks
of municipalities considering the establishment of local historic
districts; and placing and maintaining suitable markers, memorials
or monuments to designate places or sites of historical
significance in Connecticut.
TLGV Fall 2011 Grants
Awarded
This fall The Last Green
Valley, Inc. (TLGV) announced a new grant program specifically for
the marketing and interpretation of historical and culture
resources in the region. The program encouraged projects that
use digital technology and social media. A total of seven
completed applications were received and three were funded.
"This grant program has very specific timing,"
stated Charlene Cutler, TLGV Executive Director & CEO.
"We wanted to fund projects that would be completed over the
winter and debuted in the spring at the beginning of the tourist
season."
The Thompson Historical
Society received a grant of $3,000 for the THS Museum Web Access
Program. The working group will combine the historical
society's presentations, video documentaries, collections of
photographs and documents onto an online library that will allow
people literally from all over the world to visit and learn from
the THS archives.
An innovative
partnership among the Finnish American Heritage Society, the Town
of Canterbury, the Canterbury Library and the Canterbury Historical
Society will develop a movable, touch-screen information kiosk that
will highlight the town's history, the significant cultural
resources of the Finnish American Heritage Society and other
resources. TLGV awarded $4,600 for this project.
The Connecticut Society
of the Sons of the American Revolution was awarded a TLGV grant of
$3,400 as part of a $30,105 project called
"RevoluntionaryCT.com Letterboxing Trail & Website.
The CSSAR is working with 10 other partners to market the
Revolutionary War history of the region through letterboxing, a
fast-growing outdoor hobby that combines problem solving, art,
history, nature and orienteering. The goal is for the visitor
to find secreted boxes and develop a collection of unique stamps
from the sites. Letterboxing can even make a small roadside
marker part of a larger and more complex interpretation of the
history of the region.
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Slater Memorial Museum
Vivian Zoe
860-425-5560
www.slatermuseum.org
Slater Memorial Museum to Re-open
After nearly 18 months, the long-awaited re-opening of the
Slater Memorial Museum will take place November 12 and 13,
2011. The celebration events promise to be filled with both
joy and relief as patrons are invited to view the new atrium that
offers universal access through an elevator and a series of ramps,
plus ample and beautiful new restrooms and gathering spaces.
The project has made the Slater, Converse, Norton and Alumni Gym
buildings universally accessible and compliant with the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act through the construction of the
atrium connector of largely steel and glass set back from the front
(Crescent Street).
In addition, newly installed and re-interpreted galleries
will be unveiled throughout the museum. The challenge of
re-installing virtually every corner of the museum's exhibitions to
accommodate safety code-mandated improvements was seized as an
opportunity to improve museum interpretation.
Museum interpretation in simple terms is the approach used
to "deliver" the museum's content to its audience. The
Slater Museum is literally a treasure trove of objects with immense
significance to Norwich and its surrounding towns. Over seven years
ago, a group of scholars proposed themes for the Slater's re-interpretation
that would deploy virtually every element of its collection,
including its remarkable home. The scholars contended that each of
these can and should be used to interpret life in Norwich from the
beginning of recorded time to the present. It is with this
charge in mind that museum staff and volunteers have worked over
the past several years, and in focus, year-and-a-half.
First and foremost, the Slater Museum's iconic Cast Gallery
has been refreshed. The original 1888 plaster copies of
the canon of World sculpture, including Egyptian, Archaic, Greek,
Roman and Renaissance marbles and bronzes have been cleaned and, in
many cases conserved. New lighting sponsored by the Friends
of Slater Museum improves visitors' experience. The interpretive
method harks back to the collection's earliest days in the 1ast
decade of the 19th century. As then, a handguide
is employed to guide visitors through the hall of sculpture with a
new color scheme to support interpretation. A significant
improvement is the resurrection of the hardwood floor, beautifully
refinished, thanks to the Friends of Slater Museum and several
generous individuals.
In the Lewis and Grace S. Sears Gallery, the former Peck
Library, Around the World on the Yacht Eleanor: The Slaters'
Grand Tour has been refreshed with newly acquired personal
objects from the Slater family, including some of Ellen Slater's
fabulous Parisian gowns, custom made in 1895. In addition,
the museum's new gift shop will make available for purchase items
that reinforce the visit including publications produced by the
Slater Museum. To the rear of the Slater's cast gallery level
in the Gualtieri Gallery, two new exhibitions have been installed
in a bifurcated space. One is a new display of African art
and artifacts, many long in storage from donors including Paul
Zimmerman, Lou and Betty Atherton. The objects placed on
display have been vetted to ensure authenticity and distilled to
strictly African origin.
Few American cities can trump Norwich with an art school and
museum-based Saturday art classes that trained children and adults
continuously for 116 years, producing artists like Charlotte Fuller
Eastman. The work of several former Norwich Art School Directors of
the early 20th century, Ozias Dodge, Margaret Triplett,
Charlotte Fuller Eastman and Irene Weir, is presented in a new
exhibition entitled Connecticut Artists of the Twentieth Century.
Norwich natives and NFA alumni like Frank Novack, Melody Leary and
Roger Dennis are included. A breadth of creative expression
is also reflected in this show through printmaking, painting,
ceramic sculpture, glass and jewelry.
On the museum's mezzanine, a newly envisioned and refreshed Crocker's
Norwich: Art and Industry in the Nineteenth Century has been
installed in a gallery built especially for it on the side
contiguous with the new Atrium. Many of the new pieces in
this exhibition have been drawn from work by John Denison Crocker
and Alexander Hamilton Emmons long languishing in the museum's
storage. A feature in this area is exposed windows, formerly
covered by false walls, now providing a glimpse into the Atrium.
Another new offering of the mezzanine is Maritime Norwich,
which utilizes objects from the museum's collections to present the
august history of Norwich's shipbuilding, whaling, sea- and
war-faring. Objects previously combined in display cases with
little or limited information are also newly installed and
interpreted, making the museum's content as intellectually
accessible as it is physically accessible.
In the museum's temporary exhibitions space, the Converse
Art Gallery, now sporting a new impervious roof, an exhibition of
work by NFA alumni from all classes will be on display from
November 12, 2011 through January 20, 2012. Thirty alumni
have submitted 117 pieces for the exhibition, which is diverse,
colorful and exciting. Several of the artists will also be
represented in the new Museum Gift Shop, sponsored by the Friends
of Slater Museum. While stock in the shop will include the typical
mass-produced and custom cards, books, prints, T-shirts, hand bags
and jewelry, a goodly amount of items for sale will be affordable
works of art by local and Connecticut artists and artisans.
The gift shop will be housed in the new Visitors' Center
where all guests will first arrive, whether they have used the
elevator, or elected to come up the old fashioned way - up the
stairs. Here, visitors will be greeted, pay their admission
fees, learn more about the museum and special exhibitions as well as
about other museums and assets in the region.
The new amenities, installations and traffic patterns
promise to enhance the visitor's experience and make the museum a
treasure for all to enjoy for the first time in its long and
important history.
The Slater Memorial Museum and Converse Art Gallery are part
of the Norwich Free Academy, 108 Crescent Street, Norwich
06360. Housed in an exemplary Romanesque Revival building
(1886), the museum features full scale plaster casts of Egyptian,
Archaic, Greek, Roman and Renaissance sculpture; fine and
decorative Art representing 350 years of Norwich History, Ancient
artifacts; contemporary fine art and ethnographic material.
The museum annually presents up to six temporary exhibitions in its
Converse Gallery and is open year round. Hours are Tuesday
through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday,
1:00 to 4:00 p.m. For more information, please visit www.slatermuseum.org.
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You can now bring your used CFLs and batteries
to the QVCC Atrium for Sustainably Green Recycling. Community
members may drop off items during regular business hours. For
more information, please contact John Lewis 860-412-7281 or jlewis@qvcc.commnet.edu .
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Lebanon Historical
Society
856 Trumbull Hwy.
Lebanon, CT 06248
860-642-6579
museum@historyoflebanon.org
Upcoming Workshop -
Pottery, Glass & China Oh My! Taking Care of your fragile
heirlooms Saturday, Febuary, 11th 10:00 - 12:00 p.m.
This workshop will feature guidance of displaying your treasures at
home. Led by Historical Society Director Donna Baron,
participants will discuss stains, cracks, and chips as well as ways
to prevent further aging and damage. Each person is
encouraged to bring no more than two pieces of pottery, china or
glass for the group to investigate. Registration is required
for this popular program. Please call 860-642-6579. Admission
is $2 for non members, free for members.
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Connecticut
State Museum of Natural History
David C. Colberg
Public Information Coordinator and Interim Education
Coordinator
Connecticut Archaeology Center
University of Connecticut
2019 Hillside Road, Unit 1023
Storrs, CT 06269-1023
860.486.5690
http://www.mnh.uconn.edu/
Paleolithic Paintings: Art and Science Inside
Chauvet Cave
Zach
Zorich, Senior Editor, Archaeology Magazine
Saturday, January 28, 2 pm (Snow date: Sunday, January
29)
Smith Middle School Auditorium, 216 Addison Road,
Glastonbury, Connecticut
$10 general admission; $5 for student with ID.
Current FOSA, ASC, and Museum of Natural History members
admitted free with ID.
Hidden away and undisturbed in the mountains of southern
France for 20,000 years, the discovery of Chauvet Cave in 1994
revealed some of humankind's earliest and most extraordinary
paintings. Images of horses, reindeer, lions, bears, rhinos, and
numerous other species adorned the ancient cave walls with an
artistry so sophisticated it was initially believed the images were
relatively recent at 10,000 to 15,000 years old. Yet, radiocarbon
dating showed that the earliest paintings were created 35,000 years
ago, placing them in the Paleolithic era. Since it's discovery
people have had limited access to the cave due to environmental
dangers and preservation concerns. However, preeminent filmmaker
Werner Herzog was given unprecedented access to Chauvet Cave to
create his 2010 film Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Zach Zorich, Senior Editor of Archaeology magazine,
has written about the Chauvet Cave and interviewed Werner Herzog on
the filming of Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Zorich's talk
will explore what archaeology tells us about the human race when
the Chauvet Cave paintings were created, who and what lived in
Chauvet Cave, the cave painting techniques used by the ancient
artists, the dangers facing cave art sites, and what the ongoing
research and viewpoints from other scholars reveal about Chauvet
Cave. He will also discuss Herzog's view on cave art, the
inadequacy of modern imagery, and how people viewing art construct
their own parallel narratives.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology (FOSA),
the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut
Archaeology Center at UConn, and the Archaeology Society of
Connecticut (ASC). The FOSA membership meeting begins before the
lecture at 1 pm and is open to the public. 860.486.4460 - www.mnh.uconn.edu
Footprints on the Land: The Imprint of Culture on Connecticut's
Landscape
Dr. William Berentsen, Geography, UConn
Saturday, February 11, 3 pm
Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, UConn Storrs
No registration required - FREE
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied
by an adult.
Connecticut is progressing through its fifth stage of
landscape evolution since the time of the first human settlement.
The earlier four stages (primeval forest, Native American
landscape, Euro-American agriculture landscape, and American
industrial-agricultural landscape), have given way to the stage we
are currently experiencing - the American suburban landscape.
Dr. William Berentsen, from the Department of Geography
at UConn, will briefly examine the early stages of landscape
evolution, the imprints of which are still to some extent evident
in today's landscape. Then his illustrated talk will focus on
today's American suburban landscape, the driving forces behind
landscape change, and what it may mean for the future.
Presented by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural
History and Connecticut Archaeology Center, part of the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences at UConn. 860.486.4460 - www.mnh.uconn.edu
Magnificent Magnification: UConn's Electron Microscopy Laboratory
Dr. Marie Cantino and Steve Daniels, Physiology and
Neurobiology, UConn
Saturday, February 18, 10 am to 11:30 am
UConn, Storrs Campus (directions will be sent to participants)
Advance registration required: $20 ($15 for Museum members)
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied
by an adult.
Electron microscopes can reveal the beautiful symmetry found in a
fly's eye, the motor proteins that power the heart, and the
intricate patterns found on a computer chip. With their
ability to make the microscopic world accessible though substantial
magnification, electron microscopes offer uncommon views of the
world that can be awe-inspiring, life changing, and
startling.
On this exciting visit to UConn's Electron Microscopy Laboratory,
learn how electron microscopes work and how samples are cut
into slices a thousand times thinner than a piece of paper. Then
take a very close look at microscopic specimens magnified up to
100,000X through the use of the transmission electron microscope
and the scanning electron microscope.
Presented by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural
History, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UConn.
860.486.4460 - www.mnh.uconn.edu
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