Yesterday, under sunny skies and a brisk breeze, forty people gathered to hear Joe Laufer and Paul Schopp, among others, describe upcoming events in the Burlington County History world. There were too many people to list, but many historical societies were represented as well as re-enacting groups, and directors of such interesting sites as the Burlington County Prison Museum, Roebling Museum, Smithville and Beverly.
Joe Laufer described upcoming events and projects including the Camp Dark Waters, Whitmer Stone project, the James Forten project, and the One-Room School project to give just a sample.
The library itself is gorgeous. Original hand-carved wooden trim interior, painted glass panels, fireplaces and handsome works of art warm every room. The staff is courteous, helpful and engaging as well as knowledgable. I enjoyed a tour of the building.
By the way, this year is the Civil War Sesquicentennial. On March 14, at Leisuretowne Historical Society, there will be a presentation by the County Historian at 7:30 on Burlco and the Civil War.
On Monday, April 4th, there will be a presentation at the Southampton Historical Society.
On May 23rd, there will be a New Views Bus Tour of Civil War Sites.
Among the wide array of aspects of historical interest represented at the Roundtable, there were re-enactors and I ran into an acquaintance of mine, Sue Hueskin, and her husband, Revolutionary War re-enactors and sutlers and I made an appointment to augment my growing and handsome wardrobe of colonial clothes. Sue has published two fascinating books that I dexribed in an earlier post, one called Had On and Took With Her, which describes the clothing worn and stolen by run-away slaves and servants, and another based on the found cookbook of 18th century Polly Burling (several copies of which I bought and gave as Christmas presents to my friends who cook.)
Also, while there, I took the opportunity to purchase the dvd The Black Doctor of the Pines, Dr. James Still and the Legacy of the Still Family. Regrettably, I had to miss the film debut at the Lenape School District, so now I'll be able to see the film, especially moving as this is Black History Month.
Next month, I'd like to do a short feature on the Civil War, since my family history has turned up a couple of Civil War veterans,
Robert Jaggard, of the Clementon Jaggard family, who survivied Andersonville, and William C. Garwood, a fifer with Company K, the 38th New Jersey Volunteers who served on the James River in Virginia.
To end a perfect day, a friend and I drove out to Waretown to Albert Hall where we listened to great music and appropriately ended the evening with a Civil War Music band, the name of which, I have, regrettabley, forgetton, but I'll look it up and let you know in my next post.
If you love history, I'd urge you to get out to the next Roundtable.
Later today, I plan to head over to Maple Shade to hear a presentation called "Studies in Stiles" at the Stiles Avenue Municipal Building from 2:00 to 4:00. I'll let you know what I find out!
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