Adults

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

Explore the history of Native Americans in New England. While we will not turn a blind eye to the impact that colonization, dispossession, and racism had on the story of Indigenous peoples in the region, we will also explore Native American resistance, adaptation, and survival under often harsh and unfavorable circumstances. Moreover, we will examine some of the colonial legacies that still shape the views and (mis-) perceptions about Indigenous peoples to this day.

Led by Christoph Strobel, a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is the author of War and Colonization in the Early American Northeast, Native Americans of New England (2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title); The Global Atlantic: 1400–1900, The Testing Grounds of Modern Empire; and, co-author with Alice Nash, of Daily Life of Native Americans from Post-Columbian through Nineteenth-Century America. Christoph has also published three books on immigration and his scholarly essays appear in many academic journals and in various edited collections.

Register directly on Zoom HERE.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

They’re not ready for the rocking chair yet! Two young-at-heart grandmothers will share their love of exploration and adventure, showing that they can be business owners, wives, grandmothers, and still have fun! Join “Grannies” Beth Sobiloff and Marcia Rothwell as they share stories and reflect on their adventures touring all over the Commonwealth.  Whether it is a restaurant, a statue, a historic building, library, museum, art, llamas, farms, mountains or the sea, they have visited it all and have gotten to know the people who live there. Come hear their story about how they’ve reinvented themselves later in life, and are living their retirement years to the fullest!

Led by two grannies — Beth Sobiloff and Marcia Rotcwell. Beth has three children and six grandchildren. At the age of 50, she changed careers and opened her own web design business, Birchwood Web Design. Beth is a past president of the Hanover Chamber of Commerce, and now serves on the Boards of the National Marine Life Center and the Herring Ponds Watershed Association. When she’s not designing websites, Beth enjoys knitting, kayaking and cake decorating, as well as spending as much time as possible with her grandchildren. Marcia has four children and six grandchildren. She retired from Hartford Hospital after 46 years  as Director of Integrative Medicine. She grew up in Connecticut and spent part of each summer in Sagamore Beach Highlands where she resides now. Marcia enjoys crocheting, art, Zentangle and being creative. When she’s not busy with the Grannies or hosting retreats, you can always find her biking, swimming, walking or working in the yard. Learn more about Beth and Marcia HERE.

 Register directly on Zoom HERE. Sponsored by the Corning Foundation and the Friends of the Library.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

Author Maria Olia will discuss her brand new book, Massachusetts Off the Beaten Path, in this ZOOM webinar.

About The Book: Discover some of Massachusetts’s unique offerings with this guide: Visit a wooden-boat shop that has been in business since 1793; admire the pressed-glass galleries at the Sandwich Glass Museum, or travel back in time at the nineteenth-century Old Sturbridge Village.

About The Author: Maria Olia is a travel writer and essayist. She has written extensively about Boston and New England and has authored several travel books on the region. Her articles and essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Working Mother and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. Maria has lived in the Boston area since arriving as a college student to study at Northeastern University more than 30 years ago. She resides with her husband in Newton, just outside of Boston, where they raised their three sons and daughter. Maria has a passion for American history, Cape Cod beaches, the Boston Symphony and the Red Sox. She will always call Massachusetts home.

Register directly on Zoom HERE.  Sponsored by the Corning Foundation and the Friends of the Library.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

Author Susan Mara Bregman will give a presentation based on her new book, Along Route 1: Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, in this ZOOM webinar.

About The Book: Along Route 1 in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts is an unapologetic combination of historic gravity, exuberant entertainment, unexpected juxtapositions, and wonderfully kitschy roadside attractions. New England road trippers will encounter roller coasters and candlepin bowling, lobster rolls and homemade pie, colonial-era taverns and granite fortifications. An orange dinosaur overlooks the highway in Massachusetts, a neon whale casts its glow in New Hampshire, and a statue in Maine memorializes a celebrity harbor seal. Motor courts once welcomed weary travelers, and drive-in theaters entertained vacationers on starlit summer nights. A geodesic dome is dedicated to the Maine wild blueberry, and a quirky museum documents the history of the state’s sardine industry. A club in Massachusetts showcased jazz greats, and a movie theater in Maine was named after a celebrated racehorse. Mile after mile, Route 1 tells a story about history, survival, loss, and change.

About The Author: Writer and photographer Susan Mara Bregman is the author of Arcadia Publishing’s New England Neon and New England Candlepin Bowling. A native New Yorker, she moved to Boston after graduating from college and never left. The remarkable photographs in this book came from historical societies, museums, libraries, universities, and private collections.

Register directly on Zoom HERE. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program.

**PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A VIRTUAL PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE PLACE VIA ZOOM. Registrants will receive a link to access the Zoom Webinar via email.**

Author Emily Sweeney will discuss her new book, Dropkick Murphy: A Legendary Life, in this ZOOM webinar.

About The Book: This book chronicles for the first time the unbelievable life of Dr. John “Dropkick” Murphy, a professional wrestler who put himself through medical school during the Great Depression and then opened Bellows Farm, a one-of-a-kind institution that served as both a facility where elite athletes could train as well as a secluded place where down-on-their-luck alcoholics could go to sober up discreetly. The celebrities who frequented Dropkick Murphy’s farm were many, and numerous professional athletes would go there to focus on their training and work out in his state-of-the-art gymnasium. As a result, Bellows Farm featured an unrivaled and revolving cast of colorful characters who brought it to life. Drawing on years of research and interviews, author Emily Sweeney goes behind the scenes to reveal the untold story of Murphy’s life, his farm, and the legendary events that unfolded there.

About The Author: Emily Sweeney is a staff reporter at The Boston Globe and author of the books Boston Organized Crime and Gangland Boston. A proud native of Dorchester, she also appears in “Bloody Boston,” a two-part documentary special on the Reelz channel; “Stranger Than Fiction: The True Story of Whitey Bulger, Southie, and The Departed, “a bonus feature on the DVD of the Oscar-winning movie “The Departed;” and the forthcoming Netflix series “How To Become A Mob Boss.”

Register directly on Zoom HERE.  Sponsored by the Corning Foundation and the Friends of the Library.

NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 24 hours of the program.