Essex Meadows

March’s Topic: Herbs for Health and Happiness Leslie Evans, Director of the Avery-Copp House Museum in Groton and a Connecticut Master Gardener, will present an illustrated lecture focusing on the historic use of herbs in New England at a time when the garden served as a medicine chest for most families. Along with facts and folklore from centuries past, some modern uses for these valuable plants will be discussed.  Samples of fresh and dried plants will be on display so that everyone can enjoy their delightful textures and aromas.   Essex Historical Society and Essex Meadows present History Hour. This FREE public program features a speaker, author, presenter, or musician each month presenting a topic of regional history. History hour is FREE and open to the public. We recommend arriving to Hamilton Hall by 9:50 am as seating is available first-come, first-served. No need to register for this event. In the unlikely event that the program changes or needs to be canceled, please check EHS social media and website.

Essex Historical Society and Essex Meadows present History Hour. This program features a speaker, author, presenter, or musician once a month through 2026. This month’s presentation is called Revolution Close to Home: Five Lives in Early Potapaug during America's Turning Point  Patriots and Loyalists, enslaved and free, women and warriors.  Essex Historical Society (EHS) Director Melissa Josefiak details the complex relationships and shifting allegiances during the American Revolution in the Potapaug village of Saybrook, now known as Essex.  Learn about five unforgettable individuals whose experience reflected these tumultuous times.   Uriah Hayden Formerly located at the foot of Main Street in Essex, the Hayden Shipyard is known for building the American Revolutionary War ship The Oliver Cromwell. History hour is FREE and open to the public. We recommend arriving to Hamilton Hall by 9:50 am. as seating is available first-come, first-served. No need to register for this event. In the unlikely event that the program changes or needs to be canceled, please check EHS social media and website.

Essex Historical Society and Essex Meadows present History Hour. This program features a speaker, author, presenter, or musician once a month through 2026. Stay tuned as we announce the topic and presentation of each month’s program. May’s History Hour features our rescheduled speaker from our January Winter Lecture Series. Join us in welcoming Dr. Emily Sneff, author of the new book: When the Declaration of Independence Was News, as she presents "The Woman Who Printed the Declaration." Connecticut-born printer Mary Katharine Goddard created the first broadsides of the Declaration of Independence to include the names of the men who had signed that document. Dr. Emily Sneff, a leading expert on the Declaration and author of the forthcoming book, When the Declaration of Independence Was News, will explore Goddard's career and the choices she made when printing the Declaration, first in her newspaper in July 1776 and then on the broadsides ordered by the Continental Congress in January 1777. Dr. Sneff will contrast the printings under Goddard's name with newspapers printed under the name of another Mary, on the other side of the Atlantic.