Manhattan’s Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden is hosting a series of lectures this month. The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum building was constructed in 1799 as a carriage house and converted into a “day hotel” in 1826. Today the museum transports visitors back to that Mount Vernon Hotel, a 19th-century country resort for New Yorkers escaping the crowded city below 14th Street. These lectures are made possible in part by the support of the New York Council for the Humanities. Tickets are $10 for adults per lecture but free for students and seniors.

MARKET AND MEMORY: THE WAR OF 1812 IN COMMODITY AND SONG
On three consecutive Wednesdays participants can discover how the War of 1812 was remembered and celebrated in objects and song.

May 2nd at 6pm
Musicians Frank Hendricks and Linda Pratt examine the War’s long legacy in song.

May 9th at 6pm
Ronald W. Fuchs, Curator, Reeves Collection, Washington & Lee University, discusses the New York market for commemorative ceramics made in the UK after the War.

May 16th at 6pm
David Jaffee, Professor, Bard Graduate Center, looks at commemorations, parades, and newspaper accounts that celebrated heroes and battles.

THEY KEPT THEIR WORD
Thursday, May 10th, at 6pm

Hear about the important contributions of African-American women in literary societies in early 19th-century America. Women learned crucial writing, oration, and reasoning skills at literary societies that prepared them to claim the right of citizenship. Storytellers Debra Johnson and Sharon Holley combine their original research in Buffalo’s African-American Community with material from the Buffalo-Erie Historical Society.