Seasonal Closing

Because the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center is closing seasonally this year, the Research Library, the Children’s Library, and Archives & Special Collections are closed beginning December 1, 2014. Please call (800) 411-9671 for additional information.

Maps of Early New England

Saturday, Nov 1, 1-2:30 pm

The European Mapping of Early New England

If you like maps, here's an opportunity to see some rare early maps in the Museum's Archives and Special Collections. Our guest is Matthew Edney, Osher Professor in the History of Cartography and director of the History of Cartography Project at the University of Maine. He plans to discuss early representations of European exploration and North American colonization with a look at historical maps and the cartographic shaping of New England during the 17th and 18th centuries. We will have examples from Museum’s collection of maps depicting New England from the 16th to the 20th centuries. In the Fleet Room. $10 for the lecture; Museum admission is not required. To register, call (800) 411-9671 or email rsvp@pequotmuseum.org by Oct. 29.

Books and Authors

October is a time to fall back into reading! We have two authors visiting the Museum this month which is great for all of us who love to read and who enjoy meeting authors.

On Saturday, October 11, Major Jason Warren lectures about his book, Connecticut Unscathed: Victory in the Great Narragansett War, 1675-1676. Why and how did the Connecticut colony survive King Philip's War without heavy involvement in the fighting? Dr. Warren lectures at 1:30 pm in the Auditorium. You don't have to pay admission to the Museum for the lecture, which has costs $10, but you might want to because there is a 17th century encampment happening that day on the Farmstead. Call (800) 411-9671 or email rsvp@pequotmuseum.org to register.

The second author is Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Nation of the Anishinaabeg). He is an award winning well-known and respected writer who is professor emeritus of American Studies at Berkeley. His newest historical novel, Blue Ravens, was published this year by Wesleyan Press which is sponsoring his visit here.
"Aloysius Hudon Beaulieu created marvelous blue ravens that stormy summer." That's the first sentence of the story of two brothers who live on, and then leave, the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. From 1907, when they are twelve to 1924 when they are living in Paris, after serving in France during World War I, they travel far from their home but remain visionary painters and storiers. Come to the Research Library on Oct. 18, 1:30-3 pm. FREE.

Gerald Vizenor

We are pleased that Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Nation of the Anishinaabeg) is visiting the Research Library on Saturday, October 18, 2014. He reads from, and talks about, his new novel, Blue Ravens, recently published by Wesleyan University Press which is supporting, in part, his visit here.

Join us to hear from one of the most well-known and respected Native writers of our time. 

1:30-3 pm in the Research Library. FREE! Call 860-396-6897 or email reference@pequotmuseum.org for more information.

Dawnland Voices

Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England. Siobhan Senier, editor. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2014.

Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Abenaki, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, and Schaghticoke voices, past and present, are collected in this hefty paperback. We turned first to the Schaghticoke section to read the essays by Trudie Lamb Richmond, former director of Public Programming here at the Museum, and who is, in the words of a colleague, “a living legend.” The writings gathered together here highlight the rich literary traditions of Native New England.  

Major Jason W. Warren

What was Connecticut's role in King Philip's War? Why did the colony remain unscathed when many towns in Rhode Island and Massachusetts were destroyed? Find out the answers on October 11, 2014, when Major Jason W. Warren visits the Research Library. Major Warren lectures at 1:30 pm and signs books afterwards. Buy a copy of the compelling book at the Gift Shop!

$10 for the lecture; Museum admission is not required. Please call (800) 411-9671 or email rsvp@pequotmuseum.org to register.

Connecticut Unscathed: Victory in the Great Narragansett War, 1675–1676

Volume 45 in the Campaigns and Commanders Series published by the University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.

Major Jason W. Warren, U.S. Army, received his doctorate in history from Ohio State University and served as an Assistant Professor of history at West Point. He is a strategist at the Army War College. Major Warren conducted research at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center about the participation of Pequot and Mohegan forces in King Philip's War.

Book cover and photo courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Press.

American Indian Youth Literature Award Ceremony

On June 29, the American Indian Library Association hosted the 2014 American Indian Youth Literature Award ceremony at ALA in Las Vegas. The audience cheered the winners and laughed with multiple award-winning author Tim Tingle, whose key note speech was filled with humor and emotion. 

Click here to go to Tu Books site with more photos of the ceremony. Tu Books, an Imprint of Lee and Low Books, published the Young Adult award winning book, Killer of Enemies, by Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki).