The Bement-Billings Farmstead, located one mile north of the Village of Newark Valley on Route 38, is holding weekend tours through September, from noon to 4 p.m. The charge for the tour is $3 for adults and $2 for students ages five to 16.
On Saturday, July 25, Mary Green will present on Open Hearth Cooking and/or Laundry Day. Laundry is something that so many of us take for granted in this present day of ubiquitous washing machines and dryers and laundromats.
For most of human history, prior to our advances in technology and the spread of our electrical grid, this was certainly another part of life that required hours of “elbow grease” and toil. There was the fetching of water, the boiling of water, the soaking of clothes, removing stains, the beating of clothes with a washing bat, use of bluing, more rinsing, ironing and drying. Not to mention that you had to make your own soap. This, of course, was made all the more complicated when there were two feet of snow outside your dwelling and the temperatures were down below zero.
On Sunday, July 26, Pamela L. Poulin will present “Alice Paul: Champion of the 19th Amendment (1920) and Author of the Equal Rights Amendment” at 2 p.m. at the Farmstead. Provided photo.
Mary Green, one of the Homestead’s longest-serving and most knowledgeable guides, has made a special illustrated display of what took place each Monday (the usual day for washing) in a household of the early 1800’s. She is also skilled in the art of open hearth cooking, which will also be demonstrated if the weather is not excessively oppressive in the kitchen.
On Sunday, July 26, Pamela L. Poulin will present “Alice Paul: Champion of the 19th Amendment (1920) and Author of the Equal Rights Amendment” at 2 p.m.
Alice Paul (1885 – 1977), J.D. and PhD, is the lesser-known champion of the Women’s Right to Vote Amendment, which Congress passed in 1919; it was later ratified by the required three-quarters of the States in 1920. While President and Founder of the National Woman’s Party, suffragist Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment, presenting it in Seneca Falls in 1923 for the 75th Anniversary of the First Women’s Rights Convention there.
Unlike most Amendments, a time limit for ratification was placed on the ERA, and the Senate must now remove this stipulation and pass it. Paul is also known for leading the first pickets in the United States, on the public sidewalks of the White House, for which she and others were arrested, sent to the infamous rat-infested Occoquan Workhouse, and force-fed using metal instruments.
Alice Paul will be brought to life by musicologist-soprano-actress Dr. Pamela L. Poulin, Professor Emerita at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, her books on J. S. Bach and Mozart are published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Poulin was privileged to shake the hand of Alice Paul in 1970 at the Susan B. Anthony House.
Visit www.nvhistory.org to learn more. For tour information, email to nvhistory@stny.rr.com or call (607) 642-9516.
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