Historic Wethersfield

Wethersfield, CT

Wethersfield Trees with Brian Kenny

October 14th at 5:30pm. Wethersfield Trees with Brian Kenny

Brian Kenny, Wethersfield’s own Tree Supervisor will survey the scope of our town’s remarkable collection of notable trees and how to find them in our Tree Database. He will also talk to the following with a Q & A at the end. At the Keeney Memorial Cultural Center Ballroom, 200 Main Street. Free, all are welcome!

Understand our current tree population and identify areas to improve the tree canopy.
Analyze the age (mature vs. immature) and species diversity of our canopy.
Determine which tree species to avoid and which ones to plant.
Build a better maintenance plan based on our existing inventory.
Track and treat affected trees when pests or diseases develop.
Assist with future grant opportunities for tree placement and removal.
Provide a resource for homeowners to check if a tree is town or privately owned.
The Tree Commission and town tree policies.

This event is brought to you by the Wethersfield Village Improvement Association. For questions and further information email,
wethvia@gmail.com.

Early American Needlework and National Identity 

September 10th, 6:00pm. Civic Stitches: Early American Needlework and National Identity

LECTURE | with Emily Whitted, Guest-Curator, American Girlhood: Needlework, Memory, and The Making of a Nation

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

Purchase Tickets:
https://www.simpletix.com/e/lecture-civic-stitches-early-american-need-tickets-265191

*This lecture will be offered in person and via Zoom. Zoom link will be provided in advance of the lecture.

Portraits of Patriots with Damien Cregeau

August 20th, 6:30pm. Portraits of Patriots with Damien Cregeau

Lecture; Book signing

Author Damien Cregeau brings Colonel John Trumbull and five fellow Connecticut patriots to vivid life through portraiture, storytelling, and the real—ambitious, flawed, courageous—faces behind the Revolution. At the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield. *This lecture will be offered in-person and via Zoom.

Tickets: $15 | $12.50 Virtual | $10 Members
www.simpletix.com/e/lecture-book-signing-portraits-of-patriots-tickets-274501

Webb Deane Stevens Museum • 211 Main Street, Wethersfield, CT 06109
www.wdsmuseum.org | 860-529-0612 | info@wdsmuseum.org

The Art of Collecting

May 14th, 7:00pm. The Art of Collecting

LECTURE | With Ned Lazaro at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum

What 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.

For tickets or more information: https://www.simpletix.com/e/lecture-the-art-of-collecting-tickets-260319

America’s Tapestry: Commemorating the Revolution Through Fiber Arts

April 9th, 7:00pm. America’s Tapestry: Commemorating the Revolution Through Fiber Arts

LECTURE | With Stefan Romero

Discover the extraordinary America’s Tapestry project—a nationwide initiative creating hand-stitched panels commemorating the American Revolution, with each state contributing its own unique narrative in thread.

Stefan Romero shares the inspiring story of how this project came to be and explores the centuries-long tradition of using fiber arts to preserve collective memory. From the Bayeux Tapestry to modern commemorative quilts, learn how needle and thread have documented our most pivotal moments.

For tickets or more information: https://www.simpletix.com/e/lecture-america-s-tapestry-fiber-arts-the-tickets-259326

Feuding Founders Collective

May 16th, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Feuding Founders Collective: The Untold Drama of Silas Deane, John Jay, and the Lees of Virginia

Three sites. Three perspectives. Three stories of imperfect men trying to build something that had never existed before.

They were allies and rivals. Collaborators and critics. Sometimes all at once. This spring, the Feuding Founders Collective launches at WDS — a multi-site series that strips the marble off the men who built the republic and asks what their struggles with polarization, loyalty, and public reputation can teach us about our own. Wethersfield kicks things off May 16, with events at partner sites in New York and Virginia to follow. Stay tuned.

Tickets on sale March 2026. Learn more: https://wdsmuseum.org/event/feuding-founders-collective/

Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden Women of Delftware

March 12th, 7:00pm – 9:00pm. LECTURE | Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden Women of Delftware

When over seventy-five pieces of rare Delftware were discovered in a historic Manhattan townhouse, decorative art expert Genevieve Wheeler Brown recognized these exquisite ceramics held secrets overlooked for centuries. Join us for an illustrated journey through the hidden history of this beloved art form and the remarkable women who shaped it.

Through vivid images of 17th and 18th century treasures—puzzle jugs, flower pyramids, Persian blue teapots, and ornate tiles—Brown reveals the stories of female factory owners like Barbara Rotteveel, who founded “The Three Bells” in 1671, and royal patron Queen Mary II, whose passion for blue and white ceramics sparked a decorative revolution. Discover how pioneering American collectors Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II laid the groundwork for women in museums while preserving decorative arts for future generations.

Part art history, part detective story, this presentation celebrates the artistry and forceful female lives behind one of the world’s most coveted ceramics.

https://wdsmuseum.org/event/lecture-beyond-blue-and-white-the-hidden-women-of-delftware/

The French Alliance & The Road to Yorktown

July 21st, 7:00pm. Lecture: The French Alliance & The Road to Yorktown

University of Maryland History Professor Dr. Richard Bell delivers The French Alliance & the Road to Yorktown as the next installment of Wethersfield Historical Society’s American Revolution Program Series. Wethersfield resident Silas Deane played a crucial role in helping to establish the important alliance between the U.S. and France. This lecture explores the important role that this alliance played in the American Revolution and how it evolved over time, from France providing secret support with guns and other matériel to working directly with the U.S. to beat the British at the decisive siege of Yorktown. Admission: $10 General Public; Free for current members of Wethersfield Historical Society.

At Keeney Memorial Cultural Center, 200 Main Street, Wethersfield. Admission: $10 General Public; Free for current members of Wethersfield Historical Society. For more info visit, www.wethersfieldhistory.org.

New-Gate’s Role in the Revolution

June 2nd, 7:00pm. Lecture: The Catacomb of Loyalty; A Deep Dive into New-Gate’s Role in the Revolution

Wethersfield Historical Society presents The Catacomb of Loyalty: A Deep Dive into New-Gate’s Role in the Revolution, a lecture given by Morgan Bengel, curator and site administrator of Old New-Gate Prison & Copper Mine. This talk is part of WHS’ ongoing American Revolution Program Series and explores how loyalists and POWs were treated here in Connecticut during the war.

Founding Mothers

May 14th, 6:30pm. Lecture: Founding Mothers

As part of its American Revolution Program Series, Wethersfield Historical Society presents historian Dr. Amanda Goodheart Parks. Parks will deliver Founding Mothers, a lecture about women in Wethersfield and across the colonies who made significant contributions to the American Revolution. Despite Abigail Adams famously exhorting her husband and his fellow Founding Fathers to, “…remember the ladies,” history has largely forgotten their efforts. This lecture shares the extraordinary stories of notable women across the nation (Martha Washington, Mercy Otis Warren, Polly Cooper, and others) who helped America win its independence.