This 40-minute program features a collection of “New Songs” & Hymns published in Connecticut during the American Revolution. From the time of the Stamp Act through the British surrender at Yorktown, Connecticut’s seditious colonists used these works to foment rebellion, commemorate victory, and give thanks for preservation. Richard Franklin Donohue, Tenor and Harpsichord, will explore this fiery repertoire that in the words of John Adams “cultivated the sensations of Freedom.”

Jewish Participation in the American Revolution – Red, White and Jewish will share the stories of the Children of Abraham who fought for separation from England.

 Jewish Participation in the American Revolution – Red, White and Jewish explores the role played by those Jews who took up arms and endured the hardships and hazards alongside their Christian neighbors and endangered themselves as intelligence gatherers, toiled to ensure a steady supply of food and war materiel and worked tirelessly as financiers to bring about the Noble Experiment that still endures almost two-hundred and fifty years later.

 Although the Jews in Colonial America represented a small minority of the overall population, their contributions, individually and collectively, were significant beyond their meager numbers. And, the Jewish experience in the American Revolution has continued to color this vibrant community into the 21st Century.

Presenter bio: Eric Chandler is retired from a 30+ year career as an underwriter for a leading land title insurance company. He has been involved in American Revolutionary War Living History since 1974. He has portrayed infantry, light infantry, whale-boat raider, and mounted and dismounted dragoons. He is currently serving his fourth term as a member of the Norwalk Historical Commission, sits on the Norwalk Historical Society Board of Directors as well as the Board of Directors for the recreated Sheldon’s Horse, 2nd Regiment Continental Light Dragoons for which he also serves as lieutenant and adjutant.

 His artistic endeavors included writing and recording a non-selling comedy CD, and decades as a musician playing Saxes in area Rock & Roll and Blues bands. To his credit, or shame, he had his likeness used in an issue of MAD Magazine. Eric is enjoying retirement with his wife Catherine, taking classes, giving lectures on historical topics and continuing to live history.

Randy Calistri-Yeh will be performing a solo cello recital entitled “Songs of War.” Randy will perform special arrangements of music associated with military conflicts from the Revolutionary War to 9/11. He will also share stories describing the historical context of how music has been used to celebrate, mourn, and protest the horrors of war. The concert includes classical music, Broadway and movie music, patriotic marches, and popular songs.

Dr. Kenneth Noll is a Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at the University of Connecticut and has been performing in community theater near his home in Storrs, Connecticut for almost 20 years. Join us at the Meeting House for his portrayal of General Putnam in his General's uniform using a few slides to talk about his life as a Connecticut farmer, his time as an inn-keeper, his service in the Connecticut militia for the British army in the French and Indian War, and his time as the second in command under Gen. George Washington in the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

George Washington, Paul Revere, the Marquis de Lafayette are all names we were taught in school as having been heroes of the American War for Independence. Molly Pitcher is a name we see given to a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. But who was Molly Pitcher? Was she one person or a composite of two or even three women who performed similar acts of courage?  Whether one, two or three, “Molly” was not the only example of women who served the cause of independence between 1775 and 1783.  Have you ever heard of Anna Maria Lane? Or Sally St. Claire? How about Elizabeth Zane? I didn’t think so.

 Women in the American Revolution: Putting the ‘Her’ in Heroics will introduce you to some of the women who risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to lift the yoke of British control of the 13 Colonies. Women who are missing from our history books, their stories as soldiers and spies left untold.  There are many tales of courage to be revealed in this power-point illustrated talk about these largely unsung heroines of the American Revolution.

 Presenter bio: Eric Chandler is retired from a 30+ year career as an underwriter for a leading land title insurance company. He has been involved in American Revolutionary War Living History since 1974. He has portrayed infantry, light infantry, whale-boat raider, and mounted and dismounted dragoons. He is currently serving his fourth term as a member of the Norwalk Historical Commission, sits on the Norwalk Historical Society Board of Directors as well as the Board of Directors for the recreated Sheldon’s Horse, 2nd Regiment Continental Light Dragoons for which he also serves as lieutenant and adjutant.

 His artistic endeavors included writing and recording a non-selling comedy CD, and decades as a musician playing Saxes in area Rock & Roll and Blues bands. To his credit, or shame, he had his likeness used in an issue of MAD Magazine. Eric is enjoying retirement with his wife Catherine, taking classes, giving lectures on historical topics and continuing to live history.

Underpinning the sensationalism of battle reports & broadsides is the often silent steadiness of women’s work with textiles. The choices they made every day about fashion and fabric consumption & creation drove the course of Revolution just as determinedly as any congress. As southern New England commemorates the 250th anniversary (semiquincentennial) of the War for Independence, it is these local lives dressed in fulled wool or spun silk that continue to inspire creativity, resilience, and empathy in us today. From the mythology of homespun to legends of midnight rides in red cloaks & calashes, the Dirty Blue Shirts share stories of women who waged war on multiple fronts as well as a look at what they wore as their worlds turn’d upside down. This program is presented by costumed historians and includes reproduction clothing pieces & fabric samples as well as a PowerPoint presentation with images of extant originals."