Contributed by TIME AND THE VALLEYS MUSEUM
ONLINE — A program titled “Taverns in the Early United States,” by Dr. Kirsten Wood, will be held on Sunday, January 18 at 2 p.m.
People have gathered in taverns to drink, relax, socialize and do business for hundreds of years. For just as long, critics have described taverns as sources of individual ruin and public disorder. Wood argues that men integrated taverns into the nation’s growing transportation network and used them to raise capital, promote businesses, practice genteel sociability and rally support for favored causes—often while drinking staggering amounts of alcohol.
Kirsten E. Wood is a specialist in the social and political histories of the early United States. In addition to exploring taverns, she has written about Peggy Eaton and Andrew Jackson’s presidential sex scandal, widows’ social and economic power, the harmonic ideal in patriotic music, and the opportunities for joy and pleasure in the young nation’s public places. She is a professor of history at Florida International University and earned her Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania.
Admission to this online-only program is free of charge for museum members and costs $5 for non-members. To join the program, register by email at info@timeandthevalleysmuseum.org and put Tavern Talk in the subject line, or call 845/985-7700. A link will be sent to you. Non-members are asked to first make a donation on the museum’s website at www.timeandthevalleysmuseum.org/support/donate.