UPCOMING EVENTS
Event cancellations and updates will be announced via our Facebook page.
Mary’s Ribbons
October 1-31, 2024
Mary Washington House
Throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month, members of the public are invited to tie a pink ribbon to the fence in front of the Mary Washington House. This free activity brings visibility to the disease and allows community members to honor or remember the courageous women of their choice. Visit the Mary Washington House to prepare your ribbon, or reserve one online and we'll tie it on for you!
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Gothic Ghosts
Friday, October 18, and Saturday, October 19
6:30 PM and 8:00 PM
Rising Sun Tavern
Join us at the Rising Sun Tavern as we take a glimpse into how a friendly challenge gave us two of the biggest influences on modern horror writing. With live readings of the Fantasmagornia, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and John Polidori’s The Vampyr, this event is sure to bring chills and thrills. In summer of 1816, the famous poet Lord Byron hosted a small party at Villa Diodati, a mansion he rented for a time. Among the guests were poet John Polidori, writer Mary Shelley, her future husband Percy Shelley, and Mary’s stepsister, Claire Clairmont. As the night of festivities turned into an extended sleepover, Byron read Fantasmagornia to the group, a collection of German scary stories. With these works fresh in their minds, Byron proposed a challenge to his guests: scribe with their own terrifying tales. Listen to these hair raising tales by the Tavern’s evening light.
Indigenous History at the Rappahannock Fall Line: Jason Sellers, Associate Professor, University of Mary Washington Department of History and American Studies
Thursday, November 7 at 10:00 AM
Central Rappahannock Regional Theater
The area surrounding today’s Fredericksburg was traditionally home to multiple Indigenous nations, most notably the Patawomeck, Rappahannock, and Manahoac Indians. This Washington Heritage Museums Speaker Series lecture will focus on Indigenous experiences with English colonialism across the 17th and early 18th centuries, considering how Natives adapted their traditional lifeways and social interactions to their new neighbors. It will also address the diminishing visibility of Virginia’s Native peoples later in the colonial period, and their reemergence in the 20th century.
Location: Central Rappahannock Regional Library, 1201 Caroline Street
This lecture is free and open to the public. The use of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library’s meeting facility does not constitute the library’s endorsement and sponsorship of the program or the organizer’s policies and beliefs.
Bound to the Fire: How Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine: Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz, Author, and Vice President of Collections and Public Engagement at Stratford Hall
Thursday, December 5 at 10:00 AM
Central Rappahannock Regional Library Auditorium
This Washington Heritage Museums Speaker Series lecture will draw from archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to present a nuanced study of the lives of enslaved plantation cooks from colonial times through emancipation and beyond.
Location: Central Rappahannock Regional Library, 1201 Caroline Street
This lecture is free and open to the public. The use of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library’s meeting facility does not constitute the library’s endorsement and sponsorship of the program or the organizer’s policies and beliefs.
