RAVENA — On Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m., the Ravena Coeymans Historical Society will present a program featuring Dr. Patricia West McKay.
Dr. West will reflect on a lifelong study of history, beginning with her early years at Ravena Elementary School. The focus of the talk will be about historic preservation in times of political and social division.
Dr. West will highlight the effort to save Mount Vernon in the lead up to the Civil War. She will also highlight the establishment of Orchard House, the home of Little Women’s author Louisa May Alcott, a museum amid the founders’ differences on the issue of Suffrage. The lecture will conclude with an open discussion about the value of historic preservation in a rapidly changing world.
Patricia West McKay holds a Ph.D. in United States History from Binghamton University and until her recent retirement, served as curator/historian for the National Park Service at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook. She teaches a graduate program in public history at the University at Albany and has written numerous articles on historic preservation, including “Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America’s House Museums,” published by Smithsonian Institution Press.
Join in for this final program of 2024, open to the public, at the museum at 15 Mountain Road in Ravena.
Also, mark your calendars for the museum’s holiday Open House on Sunday, Dec. 8, from 1-3:30 p.m.
