Heritage Lecture Series Begin this Friday
Part of 300th Anniversary of Democracy in Dutchess Celebration

Poughkeepsie, NY… In celebration of the 300th Anniversary of Democracy in Dutchess, the County’s Department of History has launched the Heritage Lecture Series. The series kicks off this Friday, June 7th at 7:30pm at the Millerton-North East Library Annex at 28 Century Boulevard in Millerton with a lecture by Dr. Whitney Martinko of Villanova University titled Founding Antiquaries: Preserving a Historic Landscape in a New Nation. Tickets are available by calling Dutchess County Tourism at (845) 463-4000. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door.   The lecture event will be followed by reception and is being hosted by the North East Historical Society and the Friends of the Irondale Schoolhouse.

Martinko will discuss her research of how early Americans of varying ethnicities, social statuses, political allegiances, and geographic origins “stewarded places they viewed as evidence of America’s past by  creating sites that juxtaposed characteristics that today we see as contradictory: old and new; improvement and decay; private and public.”

“The topic is both a sensitive and compelling one for Dutchess County and the Mid-Hudson region in general,” said Dutchess County Historian William P. Tatum III.  “Dutchess abounds in examples of both the old and new approaches to historic preservation, with many exciting projects currently underway. The Mid-Hudson was the birthplace of historic preservation as we know it today.”

There will be two additional lectures in the series. The second program, featuring Prof. Andrew Shankman of the University of Rutgers-Camden, will focus on Poughkeepsie as the birthplace of the Bill of Rights during New York’s Ratification Convention of the Federal Constitution. This event will be held at Cunneen-Hackett Theatre, 12 Vassar Street in Poughkeepsie on Friday, July 26th at 7:30 pm. The third and final lecture will be held in the Sanctuary of the Fishkill First Reformed Church, 1153 Main St. Fishkill, NY, at 7:30 pm on Saturday, September 21, 2013. Speaker Todd Braisted will delve into the experiences of Dutchess County men who joined the King’s Army during the Revolutionary War.

Ticket proceeds support the 2013 Dutchess Heritage Tourism events.   Season tickets are available for all three Speaker Series are $25.  HERITAGE PATRON PACKAGES are also available that include season tickets, dinner with each speaker, and a color print of the 1804 Dutchess Turnpike map. Call Dutchess Tourism at 463-400 for prices and information.

Additionally, the Heritage Lecture Series is sponsored by Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, and the Dutchess County Historical Society.

To learn more about the all of the events planned as part of the Heritage Days, the 300th Anniversary of Democracy in Dutchess, visit Dutchess County Tourism’s special Heritage Days webpage at:
http://www.dutchesstourism.com/heritage-days.php