CRM Talks – Steve Taylor
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
6:00 – 7:00 pm
VIRTUAL presentation
Members FREE
Non-Members $5.00

Steve Taylor presents Connecticut Valley Agriculture: A Continuum of Change

From First Nations people to European settlers to modern times agriculture in the Connecticut Valley has been shaped by geology, climate and economic forces. Steve Taylor will discuss the dynamic changes that have swept the Valley’s rural landscape over the centuries and suggest what the future may hold for it.

Steve Taylor is newspaperman, farmer, and longtime public official. He has lived his entire life in the Connecticut River Valley town of Plainfield, N.H. He has been a daily newspaper reporter and editor, freelance writer, dairy farmer and was New Hampshire’s commissioner of agriculture for 25 years. He is also a lifelong scholar of the region’s agricultural history and rural life, about which he writes and speaks frequently.

Image Courtesy of Steve Taylor

CRM Talks 2023:
February 23, 2023: Elizabeth Normen, Venture Smith
March 21, 2023: Steve Taylor, Connecticut Valley Agriculture: A Continuum of Change
April 18, 2023: Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, Maritime History: Indigenous & African American
May 17, 2023: Michaelle Pearson and Jim Lampos: Remarkable Women of Old Lyme

The Connecticut River Museum may record this webinar, including all questions, comments, etc. by the audience. By participating, you agree to allow the recording to be posted on the Connecticut River Museum’s website, Facebook page, Instagram feed, and other media. Please consider a donation to support CRM. If you have already donated, thank you for your support.

CRM Talks – Elizabeth Normen
“Venture Smith”
Hybrid Lecture
Thursday, February 23, 2023
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Members FREE
Non-Members $5.00

Elizabeth Normen presents: The Central Role of the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound in the Life of Venture Smith

Join us as Elizabeth Normen discusses the central role that river and sea, specifically the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound, played in the quest for freedom of Venture Smith.

Normen is the Founding Publisher (retired) of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history celebrating its 20th anniversary; and editor or co-author of African American Connecticut Explored (Wesleyan University Press, 2014), Where I Live: Connecticut for grades 3 & 4 (Connecticut Explored, 2017), and Venture Smith’s Colonial Connecticut for grades 5 – 8 (Connecticut Explored, 2019).

Using his narrative published in 1798, Elizabeth Normen discusses the central role that river and sea, specifically the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound, played in the colonial-era life of Venture Smith. Smith was kidnapped as a child in West African and enslaved in Southeastern Connecticut until he bought his freedom in 1765. As a free man he settled along the Salmon River in Haddam Neck. Find out how water and the southern New England maritime economy were inextricably linked to his quest for freedom.

Books will be available for sale. Venture Smith’s Colonial Connecticut was a 2020 finalist for the Connecticut Center for the Book, Spirit of Connecticut award.

Image Courtesy of Elizabeth Normen

CRM Talks 2023:
February 23, 2023: Elizabeth Normen, Venture Smith
March 21, 2023: Steve Taylor, Connecticut Valley Agriculture: A Continuum of Change
April 18, 2023: Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, Maritime History: Indigenous & African American
May 17, 2023: Michaelle Pearson and Jim Lampos: Remarkable Women of Old Lyme

The Connecticut River Museum may record this webinar, including all questions, comments, etc. by the audience. By participating, you agree to allow the recording to be posted on the Connecticut River Museum’s website, Facebook page, Instagram feed, and other media. Please consider a donation to support CRM. If you have already donated, thank you for your support.