RESCHEDULED! Lunch and Learn – Lydia Sigourney: Unsung Mother of American Literature

Virtual Presentation!

Please note that this Lunch and Learn will take place on a Thursday!

Who was Lydia Sigourney? Why is she not more well known among generations of Hartford residents and other readers? Come learn more about how Hartford’s own Lydia Sigourney helped transform American culture in the early 19th-century.

Using items from the Connecticut Museum’s collection, Professor Mary Louise Kete and Professor Elizabeth Petrino will introduce you to Sigourney’s central role as an American poet, educator, and rights activist and to the Lydia Sigourney Digital Archive Project.

This virtual event is free and open to the public. Get tickets to receive the Zoom link.

Questions? Contact Jen Busa, Public Programs Coordinator at jbusa@connecticutmuseum.org.

Thank you to our series sponsors Camille and Gregory F. Servodidio!

For information on how to request specific accommodations, including ASL interpretation, please visit our Accessibility at the Museum page.

About the speakers:

Mary Louise Kete is Chair of the English Department at the University of Vermont where she also teaches and studies 19^th-century American literature and culture. She and Elizabeth Petrino have co-edited Lydia Sigourney: Critical Essays and Cultural Views (U of Massachusetts Press, 2018) and a special issue on Sigourney for the journal ESQ. Her publications focus on the contributions of American women to the major cultural movements of the long 19^th-century.

Elizabeth Petrino is Director of Liberal Studies in the Associate Degree Program at Fairfield Bellarmine and Professor of English at Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT. She and Mary Louise Kete have co-edited Lydia Sigourney: Critical Essays and Cultural Views (U of Massachusetts Press, 2018). Her articles on Sigourney explore a range of topics including gift book culture, correspondence, deaf education, and the environment and have appeared in Studies in American Humor, Legacy, ESQ, and ISLE.

Currently, Mary Louise and Elizabeth are working on developing a Sigourney digital archive.

Image:  Lydia Sigourney, Painted by Francis Alexander, 1828. 2005.125.1 Connecticut Museum collection.