The Origins of American Frontier Culture
For 2020, the Museum’s Annual Lecture Series is being expanded to a yearlong program that will explore the origins of American culture as it developed here in the Shenandoah Valley.
All lectures are FREE and will take place in the Dairy Barn Lecture Hall
Lectures will run approximately 60 minutes
Light snacks will be provided
The Lecture Series is funded by a grant from
Hotel Accommodations For Guest Lecturers Provided by
Tuesday, January 21: 7:00 pm
Frontier Iron: Historical Iron-Making On The Frontier
Norm Scott, Author & Independent Scholar
Tuesday, February 18: 7:00 pm
Farms, Mills, and Shops: An Overview of Economic Activity in the Shenandoah Valley, 1750-1850
Ken Koons, Professor of History, Virginia Military Institute
Tuesday, March 24: 7:00 pm (Canceled)
Exploring the Wilds: The Violin in Early America
Tim MacDonald, Independent Scholar
Tuesday, April 21: 7:00 pm (postponed – Date TBD)
Virginia Beer: From Colonial Roots to Craft’s Golden Age
Lee Graves, Independent Scholar
Tuesday, May 19: 7:00 pm (postponed – Date TBD)
Moonshine in the making? Exploring the role of alcohol in early modern Ulster and the American backcountry
Audrey Horning, William & Mary
Tuesday, June 16: 7:00 pm (postponed – Date TBD)
Colonial Conflict among Racial, Ethnic and Religious Groups on Virginia’s Appalachian Frontier
Wilma Dunaway, Professor Emerita – Virginia Tech
Tuesday, July 21: 7:00 pm
Border Wars: The Pennsylvania/Virginia Boundary Controversy
Robert Dunkerly, NPS Park Ranger
Event Information and Lecture Abstract
Tuesday, August 18: 7:00 pm
Unfree Labor in early English Virginia
Steven A. Harris-Scott, George Mason University
Event Information
Tuesday, September 15: 7:00 pm
Revisiting Virginia’s Frontier Icon: Black Lives at Natural Bridge, from Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, to The Green Book
Eric Wilson, Rockbridge Historical Society
Event Information
Saturday, October 3: 7:00 pm
Forging an American Identity Through Clay: Ceramics and the Early American Frontier
Brenda Hornsby Heindl, Independent Scholar
Event Information
Tuesday, October 20: 7:00 pm
Death of the Cemetery: An Assessment of Historic Family Plots in Augusta County, VA
Rachel Sites, FCMV Historical Interpreter and Independent Scholar
Event Information
Tuesday, November 17: 7:00 pm
Moonshine – Blue Ridge Style: The History and Culture of Untaxed Liquor in the Mountains of Virginia
Bethany Worley, Blue Ridge Institute and Museum
Event Information
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