The Lives of Early American Women

For the last installment of Thursdays with the Starr Center, Judy Ridner and Tara Bynum visited a virtual Washington College for a talk called “The Lives of Early American Women.” The event was centered around histories of 18th and early 19th Century women. Ridner explained the ways in which historians can use material culture to approach piecing together the lives of women at the time, such as studying traditional examples of dress from different groups of women. Bynum discussed a different approach to this, such as reading poems and letters written by 18th and 19th century women. The event was hosted on Zoom and streamed live on Facebook, reaching members of the history department, students of other departments, and Chestertown community members.