|
Media contacts: Kim Schuette: 614.297.2314 or kschuette@ohiohistory.org
Media contacts: Andy Verhoff: 740.373.3750 / 800.860.0145 or averhoff@ohiohistory
For Immediate Release
Pioneers Partied Hard 200 Years Ago
Historian Ray Swick Exposes "Pioneer Pleasures and Pastimes" at Campus Martius Museum Oct. 12
(MARIETTA, Ohio, Sept. 10, 2008) – Today, it's easy to forget that the area's early settlers were flesh and blood people. They had virtues and vices and celebrated holidays and other events-sometimes a little too much. We'll discover how hard they partied during "Pioneer Pleasures and Pastimes," a talk by historian Ray Swick, Ph.D., Oct. 12 from 3-4 p.m., at the Ohio Historical Society's Campus Martius Museum, 601 Second St., Marietta.
Drawing from firsthand accounts, Swick, the historian of the Blennerhassett Island State Historical Park in Parkersburg, W.Va., explores how Marietta and Parkersburg's pioneers celebrated the good times and highlights the role that spirituous liquor played in those celebrations and in the everyday lives of settlers. In Swick's entertaining account you'll discover that holidays—and the place of alcohol in them—was not the same as it is today.
Swick earned his B.A. in History from Marietta College and his M.A. and Ph.D degrees from the University of Virginia and Miami University, respectively. He is the author of "An Island Called Eden" (about Harmon and Margaret Blennerhassett and Blennerhassett Island) and is co-editor of "A Journey through the West: Thomas Rodney's 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory" and "Blennerhassett Island."
Admission to "Pioneer Pleasures and Pastimes" is included with admission to Campus Martius. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, and $4 for students. Admission is free to members of the Ohio Historical Society and the Friends of the Museum. For more information, call the Campus Martius Museum at 740.373-3750 or 800.860.0145 or e-mail averhoff@ohiohistory
"Pioneer Pleasures and Pastimes" is sponsored by the Friends of the Museum, a nonprofit group that supports and promotes the work of the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums. All Friends of the Museum are invited to "Pioneer Pleasures and Pastimes" to renew their memberships for the coming year. New "Friends" are invited to join, too, and will receive free admission to this and all Friends programs in the coming year, as well as free admission to Campus Martius and the Ohio River Museums.
Campus Martius is one of 58 sites operated by the Ohio Historical Society, a nonprofit organization that serves as the state’s partner in preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, natural history and archaeology. For more information, call 740-872-343 or 800-752-2602 or visit www.ohiohistory.org.
|
