The Bidwell House Museum, in collaboration with the Monterey Community Center, is excited to again present the off-season program “History Talk Replay”. Join friends and neighbors at the Monterey Community Center on one Sunday afternoon in January, February and March to view a broadcast of one of our popular summer History Talks. The last lecture in the series will be held on Sunday March 8 at 1pm and is a talk from 2019 titled “O Bubble blast, how long can’st last?” An Unhappy Marriage in Puritan Boston. The History Talk Replay series is free, but donations are welcome.
In this talk by author Allegra DiBonaventura, hear the remarkable story of the marriage of Edward and Hannah Lane in 1650s Boston. Hannah, a wealthy heiress and child abandoned by her divorced parents, was just seventeen when she married Edward, a merchant twenty years her senior. But it only took a few disastrous days in the marital bed for her to realize that her marriage simply would not work. In a world where wives were expected to be obedient “helpmeets” with few legal rights exclusive of their husbands, Hannah had the audacity to sue for annulment, only to change her mind within two years. Seeking the domestic bliss that had eluded her parents would lead her take on the puritan legal establishment, and her ultimate triumph would be as improbable as it was extraordinary.
Allegra di Bonaventura is the Associate Director for Graduate Programs at Yale Law School. She received a Ph.D. in History from Yale and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Her 2013 book, For Adam’s Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England won the New England Historical Association’s James P. Hanlan Book Award and the Association for the Study of Connecticut History’s Homer D. Babbidge Award. It was named a Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year (2013).
The Bidwell House Museum is located at 100 Art School Road, Monterey, MA. The Monterey Community Center is located at 486 Main Rd, Monterey. The Bidwell House Museum is closed for the season but will re-open on May 25, 2020. The gardens and grounds are open for free, year round. For more information, please call 413-528-6888 or go to www.bidwellhousemuseum.org.