Abigail Adams Historical Society and Hingham Public Library Present
Betsy Ross and the Making of America
Abigail Adams Historical Society (AAHS), stewards of the Abigail Adams Birthplace, and the Hingham Public Library commemorate Women’s History Month by presenting a talk by historian Marla Miller on her book, Betsy Ross and the Making of America on Saturday, March 10, 2018, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Hingham Public Library, 66 Leavitt St., Hingham, Mass.
Beyond the legend of the creation of the American flag, we know very little about the facts of Betsy Ross’s life. Perhaps with one snip of her scissors she convinced the nation’s future first president that five-pointed stars suited better than six. Perhaps not. Historian Marla Miller recovers for the first time the full story of Betsy Ross, sharing the woman as she truly was. Piecing together the fascinating life of this little-known and much beloved figure, Miller shows that she is important to our history not just because she made a flag, but because she embraced the resistance movement with vigor, reveled in its triumphs, and suffered its consequences.
A Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Marla Miller is a historian of women and work before industrialization. She is the author of the award-winning The Needle’s Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution and Rebecca Dickinson: Independence for a New England Woman. The vice president and president-elect of the National Council on Public History, she is co-editor of Bending the Future: Fifty Ideas for the Next Fifty Years of Historic Preservation in the United States.
Time will be allowed for audience questions, and books will be available for purchase. Admission is free; reservations are not necessary.
