On Thursday, November 13, 4 p.m., in 1014 Tisch Hall, the Eisenberg Institute presents Marla R. Miller's lecture, "Mopboards and Meetinghouses: Charting Geographies of Labor in Federal New England." The talk follows the Institute's 2013-15 theme, "Materials of History." Link for a lecture abstract. Free and open to the public.

Marla R. Miller is Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her primary research interest is U.S. women's work before industrialization. Her book, The Needle's Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution (University of Massachusetts Press, 2006), and won the Costume Society of America's Millia Davenport Publication Award for the best book in the field for that year. In 2009 she published an edited collection, Cultivating a Past: Essays in the History of Hadley, Massachusetts (University of Massachusetts Press). Her most recent book, Betsy Ross and the Making of America (Holt, 2010) was a finalist for the Cundill Prize in History at McGill University, and was named to the Washington Post's "Best of 2010" list. Her most recent publication, a short biography of Massachusetts gownmaker Rebecca Dickinson, appeared in the Westview Press series Lives of American Women in summer 2013. She is presently completing work on a microhistory of women, work and landscape in Federal Massachusetts.

On Friday, November 14, 12 p.m., in 1014 Tisch Hall, the Eisenberg Institute presents the workshop, "Engaging Publics Across Time and Space." Link for workshop details. Focusing on public history, the panel discussion will feature Marla R. Miller, Jonathan Farr (Ph.D. Candidate, History, University of Michigan), Anna Topolska (Ph.D. Student, History, University of Michigan), and ToniAnn Trevino (Ph.D. Student, History, University of Michigan). Gregory Dowd (Professor of History and American Culture, University of Michigan) will chair. Lunch provided. Free and open to the public.

These events have been made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.

Image: Mantel in south room, Samuel Porter House, Hadley, Massachusetts, 1934 (Arthur C. Haskell, Library of Congress).