Talking History: August 2024
Historic New Harmony will be hosting a free, monthly social gathering for local history lovers, Talking History, at the Schnee Ribeyre Elliott House in New Harmony, Indiana, on Thursday, August 15, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. Central Time.
The idea behind Talking History is to provide opportunities for people to meet to share and discuss historical topics of interest related to the town of New Harmony. Though each informal meeting will be guided by a pre-announced theme, participants are free to go "off script" and take the conversation in different directions. Historic New Harmony staff plan to share a variety of selected objects and other materials from the HNH collections to spark discussions. These items will relate to the monthly theme.
The theme for August 2024 is Art in New Harmony. We plan to share artwork from Historic New Harmony's collection and have invited the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art to join in the conversation. If you are an artist or an art lover, we would love to have your perspective as well!
If you have any photos or objects that you would like to share at August's Talking History, we encourage you to bring them with you!
The Schnee Ribeyre Elliott House is located at 603 West Street in New Harmony, Indiana. For more information, contact Heidi Taylor-Caudill, Collections and Community Engagement Manager, at 812-682-6133 or hltaylorcaudill@usi.edu.
Talking History Archives
In February 2024, Historic New Harmony launched a new social gathering for local history lovers to meet monthly to share and discuss historical topics of interest related to New Harmony, Indiana. This program, Talking History, uses objects and other materials to inspire conversation. Below are summaries of each month's gathering and promotional posters.
The first Talking History gathering took place at Black Lodge Coffee Roasters in New Harmony, Indiana, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. 18 people attended the event. That month's theme was Family. Objects shared included three items from Historic New Harmony's artifact collection (a child's toy sweeper from the early 20th century, a 19th-century cast iron sad iron, and a medicine bottle) and two photograph albums related to a participant's family history. Another participant played a recording of an oral history interview for the group.
The second Talking History gathering took place at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art in New Harmony, Indiana, on Thursday, March 21, 2024. 15 people attended the event. That month's theme was Seasons. Objects shared included one item from Historic New Harmony's artifact collection (the early 19th century board game, The Pleasures of Astronomy) and reproductions of photographs from the Don Blair Collection at University of Southern Indiana Archives. Participants also had the chance to see the gallery's exhibition, Totality, which was on view through April 20, 2024.
The third Talking History gathering took place at the Murphy Auditorium in New Harmony, Indiana, on Saturday, May 25, 2024. Six people attended the event. That month's theme was Schools. Objects shared included New Harmony High School yearbooks, a children's pageant program from the 1914 New Harmony Centennial Celebration, and a 19th-century spelling game. Historic New Harmony's collections manager, Heidi Taylor-Caudill, also demonstrated the organization's new online collections database.
The fourth Talking History gathering took place at the Atheneum Visitors Center in New Harmony, Indiana, on Saturday, June 22, 2024. 30 people attended the event. That month's theme was Getting to Know New Harmony. Besides conversation, participants screened the three orientation films that have been shown to thousands of visitors to New Harmony since the late 1970s.
