Past Events

A free author talk will be presented by The New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice on her novel, The Shadowbox at 1 p.m. on March 14 via Zoom for the Essex Library. Registration is required.

A free, illustrated presentation on the career of Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei will be presented by former managing partner at Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners Architects, George H. Miller, FAIA, at 7 p.m. March 19 on Zoom for the Essex Library. Miller will focus on the influence of site on each design of four major projects: the National Gallery East Building; the Bank of China in Hong Kong; the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas; and the Grand Louvre in Paris.

A free, illustrated 5-part series of workshops on creating and maintaining financial security will be presented by UConn Extension Educator in family economics and resource management Faye Griffiths-Smith at 6:30p.m. on Jan. 26, Feb. 9, Feb. 23, Mar. 9, and Mar. 23 on Zoom for the Essex Library. Griffiths-Smith will focus on creating and following a spending plan and managing credit and debt. Registration is required. RSVP: 860-767-1560 or www.youressexlibrary.org

Connecticut River Museum Talks with special guest Eric Hintz of Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation/Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

A free, illustrated talk on help with debt management and credit repair will be presented by Banking Outreach Coordinator for the Connecticut Department of Banking Kathleen Titsworth at 1 p.m. April 8 on Zoom for the Essex Library. Titsworth will focus on reassessing financial health and best ways to manage your debt and repair your credit while avoiding common mistakes.

STEAMgirls Series Featuring: Ming Thompson Thursday, April 15, 2021 4:30 pm FREE program! A virtual program to serve girls, age 10-16, interested in studying the academic areas of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Thanks to a generous grant through The Petit Family Foundation, we are able to offer this program free of charge. Click here to register! Once monthly after school for a four-month period, STEAMgirls participants meet and speak with accomplished young women, learning first-hand about the…

The Ivoryton Library will host a Zoom event with Marc-Yves Regis, a Connecticut poet, author and photojournalist, will talk about his work at an Ivoryton Library Zoom event at 4 p.m. on April 18. Regis is the author of multiple books, including “Haiti Through My Eyes” “Two Good Feet,” and “After the Shock.” Regis grew up in Haiti during the time of Jean-Claude Duvalier, a despot also known as Baby Doc. Regis received his first camera when he immigrated to…

Ever wonder why we get sick? The cells in our body constantly communicate with each other through a network of ‘telephone calls’ to precisely maintain the delicate balance of our health. But what happens when this information is lost in translation between cells? Join the Essex Library community on Thursday, April 22 at 7 p.m. on Zoom, as three Yale scientists discuss how even a slight miscommunication in this game of ‘CELLular telephone’ can lead to various diseases. This virtual…

Fishways are structures that let fish get around dams and the Falls River in Essex now has three fishways, which are part of an effort to reestablish a run of migratory alewives from Long Island Sound up to Mill Pond.  As part of the Essex Library’s celebration of Earth Day, this illustrated Zoom talk on Saturday, April 24 at 3 p.m. will introduce the three fishways and provide a virtual tour of the Mill Pond Fishway, built in 2019 at…

Connecticut River Museum Talks with special guest Neil Pederson, Senior Ecologist, Harvard University Forest Did you know that, until recently, people in the Northeastern US have been living in one of the wettest eras of the last 500 years? Trees do. Did you know that, until recently, global warming had not impacted the Northeastern US like it had in other regions or the globe as a whole? How do we know these things? Trees are witnesses of how our shared…

STEAM Girls Series Featuring: Erica Cirino Thursday, May 6, 2021 4:30 pm Connecticut River Museum’s STEAMgirls Program FREE Program! A virtual program to serve girls, age 10-16, interested in studying the academic areas of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. Click here to register! Thanks to a generous grant through The Petit Family Foundation, we are able to offer this program free of charge. Once monthly after school for a four-month period, STEAMgirls participants meet and speak with accomplished…

Connecticut River Museum Talks with special guest Adair Mulligan, Executive Director at Hanover Conservancy. The largest river in New England rises in a small beaver pond near the Canadian border and flows over 400 miles through four states, falling 2670 feet to the sea through America’s only watershed-based national fish and wildlife refuge. This program begins with an armchair tour of this great river in New Hampshire and Vermont, exploring its history and natural beauty through the seasons and among…

A free, illustrated talk on 19th century Italianate villa design in Connecticut and its influence on American family life will be presented by architectural historian Dr. Theodore Sawruk at 7 p.m. on June 4 for the Essex Library’s Centerbrook Architects Lecture Series. Sawruk will focus on how 19th century social life was affected by the new residential prototype. Registration is required.

Connecticut River Museum Talks with special guest Robert Kim Bingham, Retired Federal Attorney, US Department of Justice and US Department of Homeland Security. Courageous Dissent is the first book published about America’s unsung diplomat hero Hiram (Harry) Bingham IV, the author’s father, who was in charge of issuing visas to America and freedom while stationed as a US vice-consul in Marseilles, France, just before World War II. It captures Bingham’s compelling story of placing humanity above his career during the early…

STEAM Girls Series Featuring: Gabriel Chevalier Thursday, June 10, 2021 4:30 pm STEAMgirls Program Featuring: Gabriel Chevalier FREE program! A virtual program to serve girls, age 10-16, interested in studying the academic areas of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. Thanks to a generous grant through The Petit Family Foundation, we are able to offer this program free of charge. Click here to register! Once monthly after school for a four-month period, STEAMgirls participants meet and speak with accomplished…

UConn Associate Professor of Virology and Vaccinology Paulo Verardi, free illustrated talk on the COVID-19 virus and viruses in general, 7 p.m. June 15 on Zoom for the Essex Library. Verardi’s focus will be on COVID-19’s origin, transmission, and variant evolution since the start of the pandemic. Registration is required.

Essex Library welcomes back David Handler In a virtual talk on Thursday, June 17 at 7 p.m. for the latest installment of his Edgar Award-winning Stewart Hoag mystery series. Handler’s mystery, set in 1990s' New York, sees the ghostwriter-sleuth and his faithful basset hound Lulu inadvertently make a dangerous enemy. After six glorious weeks of hard work on his long-overdue second novel, celebrity-ghostwriter Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag has hit a crossroads in his plot. He thinks a change of scenery will…