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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Webb Deane Stevens Museum
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260514T190000
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DTSTAMP:20260423T060649
CREATED:20260220T054609Z
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UID:10000112-1778785200-1778788800@wdsmuseum.org
SUMMARY:LECTURE | The Art of Collecting
DESCRIPTION:LECTURE | The Art of Collecting with Ned Lazaro \nThursday\, May 14\, 7:00 PM \nPurchase Tickets \nWhat drives someone to seek out a two-hundred-year-old sampler—and what does that impulse tell us about who we are? Join textile historian Ned Lazaro\, Associate Curator of Textiles and Costumes at The Wadsworth Atheneum and former curator of textiles at Historic Deerfield for a moderated discussion on the history of collecting schoolgirl samplers and other forms of needlepoint in the United States. From early needlework to printed broadsides\, discover how these rescued objects shaped our understanding of material culture—and why they still matter. \nTickets: $15 |$12.50 Virtual | $10 Members \nThis lecture will be offered in person and via Zoom. \n*Zoom link will be provided in advance of the lecture to Members and Virtual ticket holders. \n  \nNed Lazaro | David E. (Ned) Lazaro is the Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford\, Connecticut. He manages a collection of roughly 7\,500 items\, including costumes and textiles ranging from Egyptian artifacts to contemporary fashion. Lazaro specializes in interpreting fashion history\, including 18th-to-20th-century deportment. 
URL:https://wdsmuseum.org/event/lecture-art-of-collecting/
LOCATION:WDS Museum\, 211 Main Street\, Wethersfield\, CT\, 06109
CATEGORIES:Learning Series,Lecture,Members,Antiques & Collectibles,Colonial History,America 250
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://wdsmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Maryann-Bacon-Sampler_Litchfield-Historical-Society.png
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260516T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260516T150000
DTSTAMP:20260423T060649
CREATED:20260220T051902Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260402T155648Z
UID:10000111-1778925600-1778943600@wdsmuseum.org
SUMMARY:FEUDING FOUNDERS COLLECTIVE | Feuding Founders: The Untold Drama of Silas Deane\, John Jay\, and the Lees of Virginia
DESCRIPTION:Purchase Tickets \nWe tend to remember the founders as marble men — monumental\, unified\, certain. The truth is messier and more interesting. The Feuding Founders Collective is a multi-site public history initiative that humanizes Silas Deane\, John Jay\, and the Lee brothers of Virginia — men who were in conversation\, in collaboration\, and sometimes in conflict with one another. \nPresented in partnership with Jay Heritage Center (NY)\, Friends of John Jay Homestead\, and Menokin and Stratford Hall (VA)\, this series destabilizes the one-dimensional portraits we’ve inherited and invites audiences to sit with the full complexity of these lives: the ambition and the insecurity\, the idealism and the grudges\, the smear campaigns and the shared cause. \nIn an era of weaponized media and public takedowns\, these 250-year-old stories feel less like history and more like a mirror — and understanding how the founders navigated political polarization\, character assassination\, and the tension between principle and self-interest may be one of the most useful things the past can offer us right now. Three sites. Three perspectives. Not a story of heroes and villains\, but of imperfect people trying to build something that had never existed before. \nWethersfield Symposium: The Making of Silas Deane \nHow does a man of middling origins rise to become America’s first diplomat? The Wethersfield symposium focuses on the early lives and backgrounds of Silas Deane\, John Jay\, and the Lee brothers — what shaped them before they shaped the republic. What did it take for Deane to climb from a Connecticut schoolteacher to the halls of Versailles\, and then plummet to disgrace? How did the Lee brothers leverage Virginia’s planter aristocracy into political influence\, and how did their personal relationship drive or derail their decisions? How did Jay’s legal prowess and New York connections place him at the center of revolutionary diplomacy? \nThis is a day for people who want the real story—not the tidy one. Join us and fellow curious minds for a daylong adventure into the past.  Walk the rooms of the Webb and Deane Houses first — stand where political debates unfolded\, where military strategy was weighed\, where Deane may have sat alone calculating his next move. Let the spaces work on you before the conversation begins. Keep the energy and the intrigue alive over a shared meal in the barn. Then hear from scholars representing each partner site as they paint a more layered\, more human picture of Jay\, the Lees\, and Deane — their relationships to power and to one another. The day closes with a walk to the Wethersfield Cove Warehouse\, guided by the Wethersfield Historical Society — the very waterfront where Deane built the merchant trade that launched everything. \nSCHEDULE \n10:00 AM: Welcome & Orientation | 211 Main Street \n10:30 AM: Tour the historic Webb and Deane Houses \n12:00 PM: Lunch in the Webb Barn \n1:00 PM: Roundtable Discussion \nTICKETS  \nFull Day + Lunch: $55 | $50 Members of Webb Deane Stevens\, Jay Heritage Center\, Menokin\, and Stratford Hall \nHouse Tours & Roundtable Discussion: $20 In Person | $15 Members \nVirtual Roundtable Discussion: $8 \n\nAttend All Three! \nEach roundtable discussion will be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite\, online\, or a combination! \nWebb Deane Stevens Museum | Silas Deane:  May 16\, Connecticut \nJay Heritage Center | John Jay: September 26\, New York \nRegister your interest with an email to Suzanne Clary: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com \nStratford Hall & Menokin | The Lee Brothers: November 14\, Virginia
URL:https://wdsmuseum.org/event/feuding-founders-collective/
LOCATION:WDS Museum\, 211 Main Street\, Wethersfield\, CT\, 06109
CATEGORIES:Learning Series,Lecture,Members,Trips,Colonial History,Special Event,America 250
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ORGANIZER;CN="WDS Museum":MAILTO:info@wdsmuseum.org
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