NANTUCKET: The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is pleased to present author Ronne Hartfield, whose lecture, Preserving History: A Public/Private Dialogue, will focus on her own writing projects in preserving family history. Thursday, May 8, 2008, in the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street, at noon. Free.
A published poet and writer, she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago in History, Theology, and Literature, and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from DePaul University. Hartfield is also the author of Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family, which is enjoying its fourth printing.
No stranger to the island, Hartfield serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts Education and is a Life Trustee of the Rhode Island School of Design. She consults widely and is an internationally recognized expert in arts and multicultural education. Hartfield will provide insight into the process of her writings, with special emphasis on how to preserve family histories before the stories are lost forever. Case in point: while she was researching her book, she traveled with a genealogist to her mother’s birthplace, a valuable tool in securing correct and in-depth information she may not have been able to locate on her own.
As a follow-up to her Thursday lecture, on Saturday, May 10, Hartfield will lead an informal, hands-on workshop as a guide for preserving your own family histories. This program will help participants direct their efforts to organize the construction of family-history materials (genealogical information, oral history, family, and public documents) and provide tips for
utilizing them to tell your own family’s story.
Thursday, May 8, Preserving History: A Public/Private Dialogue by Ronne Hartfield. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street, Noon – 1:00 p.m. Free
Saturday, May 10, Preserving Your History: A Hands-On Guide
Whaling Museum, Discovery Room, 13 Broad Street, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Free for NHA members, $15 general public. For further information on either date, call 508-228-1894, ext. 0
