Read the Museum’s Fall Newsletter for more details on our exciting Programs
“Taxation without representation” is a catchy phrase. But does it accurately sum up the feelings of the people who fought for their independence from Great Britain 250 years ago?
Christian McBurney, the author of six books on the American Revolution, doesn’t think so. Mr. McBurney believes that a number of underlying economic, political, social, demographic, racial, and ideological factors led to momentous changes in the way everyday Americans thought about how they should be governed.
The program will take place in our Museum Gallery at 7:00 p.m. and will be live-streamed on the Museum’s YouTube channel. The program opens the Museum’s Fall 2026 Lecture Series and is free and open to the public. Watch Live Stream on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@pdmac6899
In Chinese culture, bats are associated with the Five Blessings— health, wealth, longevity, love of virtue, and a peaceful passing away. In Tonga, bats are sacred and all bats are considered the property of the king. For Mayan people, bats were associated with the gateway to the realm of the gods.
But in many cultures, including European, bats are associated with death, witchcraft, and malevolence. Along with witches and ghosts, bats have been considered part of Halloween for centuries. Why? The holiday we know as Halloween began as the Celtic holiday called Samhain. Because it fell halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, Samhain was a threshold festival, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld blurred, and contact with the spirits was more likely. Ancient Celts lit evening bonfires for cleansing and protection. Those bonfires attracted moths and other insects, and the insects attracted bats.
Join us in the Museum gallery or on our YouTube channel to listen as a staff member from the R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Fish and Wildlife will bust all your bat myths and show you how bats actually ENRICH our lives!.
In 2019, before constructing a bridge over the Farmington River in Avon, Conn., the Connecticut Department of Transportation hired Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc. to evaluate the site’s archaeology. More than six feet under the surface of the riverbank, archaeologists found evidence of human habitation more than 12,000 years ago. It is the only site in the northeastern United States with well-defined stratified Early Paleoindian-era deposits. Since 2019, archaeologists have been analyzing what was found at the site. It is named in honor of Brian D. Jones, the late Connecticut State Archaeologist, who identified and helped excavate it.
Timothy H. Ives, senior archaeologist at Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc., took part in excavating and analyzing the site and the artifacts recovered. He believes that discoveries made at the Brian D. Jones Site will deeply influence understandings of Northeastern Paleoindian lifeways for years to come.
Dr. Ives will be in our Museum Gallery on Thursday, November 5 to describe the exciting discoveries at the site. Watch Live Stream on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@pdmac6899
