Coming Events & Programs
2024 Schedule of Events & Programs
Please check our website frequently for additions, updates, and cancellations to our schedule. At this time, masks are optional at all planned events unless otherwise noted.
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| Wednesday, May 21 6:00-7:00 pm | Conservation of Stone Walls with Robert Thorson Stone wall interpretation provides new opportunities to thread together historical, archaeological, aesthetic, geological, and ecological interests. Historically, the walls are important adjuncts to the thousands of historic houses and buildings, cemeteries, battlegrounds, and monuments throughout the region. Archaeologically, they are above-ground ruins. Aesthetically, they convey essential themes in literature and art. Psychologically, they provide boundaries in space and time. Geologically, they are signature land forms for the Anthropocene epoch, the counterpart to the babbling brooks, inland wetlands, coastal dunes, kettle ponds, and bedrock ledges of the postglacial Holocene Epoch. Ecologically, they create dry lands as porous, elevated, and elongate volumes of surface stone that drain quickly. These words by Robert Thorson convey the importance of New England’s unique stone walls, and he is the authoritative expert, having written the book (Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England’s Stone Walls) back in 2002. His urgent mission is the preservation of these ubiquitous structures: a step wise approach to the conservation and interpretation of New England’s stone walls that considers these diverse values while also remaining respectful of the presence of Indigenous stonework in the landscapes. We invite you to come and explore these ideas with Dr. Thorson in this fascinating talk – it’s one you won’t want to miss! Robert Thorson has advised countless federal, state, and town governments, non-profit historical societies, conservation groups, law practices, and private landowners. In a 2023 Smithsonian essay he linked the history of stone walls to literature, ecology, climate change and geoscience, an article selected by the History News Network for the “Best History Writing of 2023.” At the University of Connecticut, he coordinates the Stone Wall Initiative as scholarly engagement within the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History. For three decades he’s been a stump evangelist for the preservation of New England’s historic landscapes. |
| Wednesday, June 4 6:00-8:00 pm | Annual Meeting, Potluck & Trivia Please join us the evening of Wednesday, June 4 for our annual meeting celebrating the year’s events and future plans for the Public Hall and Bacdayan Local History Archives. We’ll have the traditional community potluck and fun trivia contest to test your knowledge about the town of Lyme (questions this year to be drawn from the Town of Lyme’s new Annual Report). All are welcome -- bring family and friends and a favorite dish to share, and we’ll provide the rest for a lively evening to celebrate our Public Hall and wonderful community of supporters. |
| Thursday, June 19 7:00-8:30 pm | Nature Photography with William Burt We are pleased to announce that naturalist, photographer and writer William Burt will lead a Nature Photography presentation and discussion for the community at the Lyme Public Hall. A resident of Old Lyme, Burt has a passion for wild places—especially marshes—and the elusive birds few people see. He is the author of four books, and his photographs and stories have appeared in Smithsonian, Audubon and other magazines. His print exhibitions have shown in museums across the country and Canada, including the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The New Brunswick Museum, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the Harvard Museum of Natural History. For an exhibition of Burt’s photography of marsh birds in 1989, Roger Tory Peterson wrote: “William Burt is a perfectionist whose photographs of rails and other shy and elusive birds of the wetlands are unquestionably the finest ever taken. I admire his technical skill and perseverance (14 years) in getting these pictures. He has set a new standard.” Burt is currently completing work on a book about birds of the shores and wetlands. This talk is co-sponsored by the East Haddam Land Trust and the Lyme Public Hall. We anticipate a big turnout at this free event, and preregistration by June 16 is requested at: http://ehlt.org/register-photos. If you have questions, please contact Kyn at: kyn.tolson@ehlt.org |