Webb Deane Stevens Museum

WDS BOOK CLUB | The Painter's Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution
2026-08-11 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Calling all bookworms, history buffs, preservationists and culture mavens! Join us for our NEW year-long book club, accompanied by a lecture series with acclaimed authors.
This month we’re reading:
The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution
By Zara Anishanslin
(Available on Audible)
Tuesday, August 11, 6 pm | In Person and Virtual
Moderated by TR Revella-Hamilton, WDS Director of Preservation & Collections
Meet fellow history enthusiasts in person as we discuss thought-provoking books by acclaimed authors. Our carefully curated monthly selections delve into the rich tapestry of American and European history, featuring compelling works about revolutionary figures, historic preservation, decorative arts, and stories that shaped our cultural landscape. Whether you’re a seasoned historian, preservation enthusiast, or simply curious about the stories behind our built heritage, there’s a place for you in our community of learners.
JOIN BOOK CLUB

How it Works: Book Club meets bimonthly at the Museum and via Zoom on the second Tuesday of each designated month, unless otherwise noted. Book Club members will receive the newest book title via email two months prior to the book club date. You may join Book Club at any point during the year. Come when you can – there is no penalty for missing a session.
Book Club 2026 “Library Card” Annual Fee*: $25 General | $20 Museum Members | $15 Students
Your Book Club Library Card entitles you to in-person and virtual Book Club sessions, as well as discounted admission to the accompanying Book Talks lecture series held on Thursdays at the Museum.

LECTURE | Civic Stitches: Early American Needlework and National Identity
2026-09-10 18:00 - 19:30 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
LECTURE | Civic Stitches: Early American Needlework and National Identity  with Emily Whitted, Guest-Curator, American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and The Making of a Nation

Thursday, September 10, 6:00 PM
Purchase Tickets
This companion lecture to the exhibition American Girlhood by guest curator Emily Whitted will explore the larger history of needlework as part of early American education for girls. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, female education was a critical space for civic development, and needlework was one educational medium in which girls processed their own identities within the new nation. This lecture will connect needlework within the exhibition with pieces from other public collections, and broadly trace the rich lives of early American girls engaged in crafting a nation.
Tickets: $15 |$12.50 Virtual | $10 Members
*This lecture will be offered in person and via Zoom. Zoom link will be provided in advance of the lecture.
About the Curator | Emily Whitted is a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the guest curator of American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and the Making of a Nation. Her research broadly explores the history of textiles, women’s history, and material culture in early America. Her current and past work includes projects with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the National Park Service and National Council on Public History, the Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle, and the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation. She also holds an M.A. in American Material Culture from the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware.

FEUDING FOUNDERS COLLECTIVE | Jay Heritage Center, NY: John Jay, Diplomat and Spymaster
2026-09-26 10:00 - 15:00 | Jay Heritage Center, 210 Boston Post Road, Rye, 10580
Register your interest with an email to Suzanne Clary: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
This event takes place at Jay Heritage Center in Rye, NY. Attend the full day in person, or purchase a virtual ticket for the roundtable discussion.
We 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.
Presented 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.
In 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.
Rye Symposium: John Jay, Diplomat and Spymaster
How did our earliest American diplomats accomplish their secret and very delicate assignments abroad? The Jay Heritage Center symposium will focus on the interactions of John Jay, Silas Deane and the Lee brothers, Arthur and William, as illustrated by the decipherable records and cyphers that they left behind. What was the Jay-Deane code and why is John Jay credited by the CIA as being the first chief of US counterintelligence? What controversy put Jay at the center of a legal defense of Deane’s actions in France? Learn firsthand about the security concerns that prompted the Lee brothers of Virginia to launch public accusations that Deane was a traitor.
This is an experience for people who want to hear our whole history. Join us and fellow history lovers for a daylong exploration of 18th century political quandaries and fragile allegiances. Stand on the very spot where Jay looked out at the horizon during the Stamp Act and imagined a new nation and his own role in shaping it. Contemplate the contradictions he faced in seeking freedom from British rule while his family denied freedom to others who worked the land. Tour the historic Jay Estate gardens followed by lunch at the same place where Jay celebrated the end of the Revolutionary War and his negotiation of the Treaty of Paris. 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 program closes with a walk of the property that inspired James Fenimore Cooper’s Revolutionary War novel, “The Spy.”

10:00 AM: Welcome and Orientation (210 Boston Post Road) at Jay Mansion
10:30 AM: Jay Mansion Tour
11:00 AM: Jay Estate Gardens and Grounds Tour
12:00 PM: Lunch break on the Veranda
1:00 PM: Round Table Discussion at the Wachenheim Center
Hour long round table discussion plus Q&A.  Discussion will focus on the early lives and background of the Lee Brothers, Silas Deane and John Jay.  Each site will give a brief introduction to their founding father(s) and historic site(s).
3:00 pm: Tour of the 18th century Lyon Farmhouse exterior and archaeological area.

Attend All Three!
Each roundtable discussion will be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite, online, or a combination!
Webb Deane Stevens Museum | The Making of Silas Deane: May 16, Connecticut
Jay Heritage Center | John Jay, Diplomat and Spymaster: September 26, New York
Stratford Hall & Menokin | The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political “Bloodbath” of 1778: November 8, Virginia

LECTURE | Women of the Revolution with Zara Anishanslin
2026-10-01 19:00 - 20:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
The Revolution wasn’t won by generals alone. In this companion lecture to the Webb Deane Stevens Museum’s exhibition Remember the Ladies: Women of the Revolution, Zara Anishanslin introduces us to the women who shaped the war for independence—from those who rallied communities and supplied armies to the enslaved women whose pursuit of freedom exposed the deepest contradictions of the new nation. These are stories of courage, resourcefulness, and influence that have waited too long to be told.
Tickets: $15 |$12.50 Virtual | $10 Members
*This lecture will be offered in person and via Zoom. Zoom link will be provided in advance of the lecture.
Zara Anishanslin | Zara Anishanslin is a historian of Early America and the Atlantic World specializing in eighteenth-century material culture. She holds a PhD from the University of Delaware and BAs in Comparative Literature and History from UNC Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. A former faculty member at Columbia and CUNY and Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins, she has held fellowships from the Huntington Library, American Antiquarian Society, Winterthur Museum, the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, and the American Philosophical Society, among others. Her first book, Portrait of a Woman in Silk (Yale University Press, 2016), won the Library Company of Philadelphia’s Biennial Book Prize. Her forthcoming The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, July 2025) continues her work bridging rigorous scholarship and public history — most visibly as Material Culture Consultant for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton! The Exhibition.

WDS BOOK CLUB | Spiritualism's Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Séances in Lily Dale
2026-10-13 18:00 - 20:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
Calling all bookworms, history buffs, preservationists and culture mavens! Join us for our NEW year-long book club, accompanied by a lecture series with acclaimed authors.
This month we’re reading:
Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Séances in Lily Dale
By Averill Earls
Tuesday, October 13, 6 pm | In Person and Virtual
Moderated by TR Revella-Hamilton, WDS Director of Preservation & Collections
Meet fellow history enthusiasts in person as we discuss thought-provoking books by acclaimed authors. Our carefully curated monthly selections delve into the rich tapestry of American and European history, featuring compelling works about revolutionary figures, historic preservation, decorative arts, and stories that shaped our cultural landscape. Whether you’re a seasoned historian, preservation enthusiast, or simply curious about the stories behind our built heritage, there’s a place for you in our community of learners.
JOIN BOOK CLUB

How it Works: Book Club meets bimonthly at the Museum and via Zoom on the second Tuesday of each designated month, unless otherwise noted. Book Club members will receive the newest book title via email two months prior to the book club date. You may join Book Club at any point during the year. Come when you can – there is no penalty for missing a session.
Book Club 2026 “Library Card” Annual Fee*: $25 General | $20 Museum Members | $15 Students
Your Book Club Library Card entitles you to in-person and virtual Book Club sessions, as well as discounted admission to the accompanying Book Talks lecture series held on Thursdays at the Museum.

LECTURE | From Variolation to Vaccination: The Transformation of Disease Prevention in the Early Republic (1796–c.1825)
2026-10-15 19:00 - 20:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
From Variolation to Vaccination: The Transformation of Disease Prevention in the Early Republic (1796–c.1825)
Forensic anthropologist Anna Dhody traces America’s dramatic shift from dangerous variolation to revolutionary vaccination, revealing a founding-era debate about trust, authority, and what it meant to be American that feels strikingly familiar today.
Tickets: $15 | $12.50 Virtual | $10 Members * This lecture will be offered in person and via Zoom.
Bio | Anna N. Dhody, MFS is the Founder and Executive Director of the Dhody Research Institute. She was previously the Gretchen Worden Curatorial Chair, Mütter Museum and Director, Mütter Research Institute of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. She received her BA in archaeology from Boston University, Masters in Forensic Science from The George Washington University. A forensic anthropologist, Ms. Dhody previously served as an osteologist at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and worked with the United Nations Development Programme and the Public Ministry of Peru to identify some of the estimated 69,000 “Desaparecidos” victims of state terrorism. Ms. Dhody is a member of the Vidocq Society, a Consulting Scholar at The University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and was appointed a Fulbright Specialist in 2023 in museum studies and physical anthropology.

FEUDING FOUNDERS COLLECTIVE | Stratford Hall & Menokin, VA: The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political "Bloodbath" of 1778
2026-11-08 10:00 - 18:00 | Stratford Hall, 483 Great House Road, Stratford, VA, 22558
This event takes place at Stratford Hall and Menokin in Virginia. Attend the full day in person, or purchase a virtual ticket for the roundtable discussion.
Presented 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.
How did a diplomatic dispute become one of the first political media storms in American history?
Join us at Stratford Hall in Montross, VA for a Semiquincentennial conversation on the aftermath of the Lee—Deane Conflict. In 1776, Silas Deane of Connecticut was sent to France to secure crucial wartime support. He came under fire when Arthur Lee, a Virginian also posted in Europe, accused Deane of profiteering and fraud. The matter exploded into the public sphere when Deane fired back, charging Arthur Lee with spying for the British and sharing information with them. Virginia congressmen Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee found themselves defending their family’s reputation amid a fierce smear campaign that played out in the pages of newspapers up and down the Eastern seaboard. John Jay, then president of Congress, was drawn into the dispute as well, with consequences that would shadow his diplomatic career for years. As accusations and defenses spilled from private correspondence into newspapers, the reputations of all four men were tested before a watching public.
This is a day for people who want to see how the Revolution unfolded not only in congresses and courts, but in print and in public opinion. Begin the morning with a tour of Menokin, Francis Lightfoot Lee’s home, before traveling to nearby Stratford Hall to walk the grounds and tour the house where the Lee brothers grew up. Share lunch and conversation, then hear from scholars representing all four partner sites—Menokin, Stratford Hall, the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, and the John Jay Historic Site—as they examine how the Deane controversy reverberated through the early republic. This Affair affected the reputations of other “feuding fathers” including Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, and John Adams. It offers a window into the rough-and-tumble politics of the 1770s—and a reminder that the tensions between press, politics, and personal reputation are as old as the republic itself.
SCHEDULE (subject to updates)
10:00 AM-11:30 AM: Tour Menokin house and grounds, Warsaw, VA
12:00 PM-1:00 PM: Lunch at Stratford Hall, Montross VA
1:00 PM-2:30 PM: Hour long round table discussion plus Q&A on the Lee—Deane Conflict with representatives from the historic homes of John Jay (NY), Silas Deane (CT), Richard Henry Lee (VA) and Francis Lightfoot Lee (VA).
3:00-4:30 PM: Tour of Stratford Hall
5:00-6:00 PM: Wrap-up Reception and NNK Symposium Kick off, Stratford Hall
6:30-7:30 PM: Talk | NNK Symposium Keynote [add-on $10]
Pricing:
$30 | Sun, 11/8 Day Pass: Includes Menokin tour, Stratford tour, Roundtable, Reception
$10 | Add-on: NNK symposium keynote on 11/8 and NNK Symposium ticket for 11/9
$15 | Roundtable only
$5 | Virtual admission only to Roundtable
Special: $60: Pass to 11/8 Feuding Founders Symposium + Pass to 11/9 NNK Symposium
For more information or to register interest, email Connie Rosemont at crosemont@menokin.org or Hunter Peal at hunterp@stratfordhall.org

Attend All Three!
Each roundtable discussion will be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite, online, or a combination!
Webb Deane Stevens Museum | The Making of Silas Deane: May 16, Connecticut
Jay Heritage Center | John Jay, Diplomat and Spymaster: September 26, New York
Stratford Hall & Menokin | The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political “Bloodbath” of 1778: November 8, Virginia

About Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall brings together people from around the world to experience two-thousand acres of natural and human history, preserved and presented so that we can all learn from the courageous struggles of our ancestors, taking inspiration both from what they endured and what they accomplished. There are few places in America where people can travel down small, rural roads to arrive at a vast site that preserves so many aspects of early-American life, from the Great House where the influential Lee family helped to forge a new nation, to the fields worked by enslaved Africans, to the waters of the rivers that fueled trade, to the ground, which still yields secrets about the people and animals that lived before. Come experience this extraordinary place and learn about a layered history that began millions of years ago—a history that continues to educate, inspire, and influence Americans to the present day.
About Menokin
The Menokin Foundation uses the historic ruin of Francis Lightfoot Lee’s 18th-century home — and the surrounding built and natural environments — as a living laboratory for preservation and public engagement. Rather than recreating the past, Menokin employs contemporary methods to invite visitors into an active exploration of how America was built and what that history means today. One of the most distinctive historic sites in Virginia, Menokin reimagines what a house museum can be — and what honest, provocative engagement with our nation’s founding ideals and realities looks like on the ground.

WDS BOOK CLUB | Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
2026-12-08 18:00 - 20:00 | WDS Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109
This month we’re reading:
Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
By Eric Jay Dolin
(Available on Audible)
Tuesday, December 8, 6 pm | In Person and Virtual
Moderated by TR Revella-Hamilton, WDS Director of Preservation & Collections
Meet fellow history enthusiasts in person as we discuss thought-provoking books by acclaimed authors. Our carefully curated monthly selections delve into the rich tapestry of American and European history, featuring compelling works about revolutionary figures, historic preservation, decorative arts, and stories that shaped our cultural landscape. Whether you’re a seasoned historian, preservation enthusiast, or simply curious about the stories behind our built heritage, there’s a place for you in our community of learners.
JOIN BOOK CLUB

How it Works: Book Club meets bimonthly at the Museum and via Zoom on the second Tuesday of each designated month, unless otherwise noted. Book Club members will receive the newest book title via email two months prior to the book club date. You may join Book Club at any point during the year. Come when you can – there is no penalty for missing a session.
Book Club 2026 “Library Card” Annual Fee*: $25 General | $20 Museum Members | $15 Students
Your Book Club Library Card entitles you to in-person and virtual Book Club sessions, as well as discounted admission to the accompanying Book Talks lecture series held on Thursdays at the Museum.
