The Danbury Museum & Historical Society is pleased to welcome Judy Cook to the museum on Saturday, June 6, 2015 for a performance of Civil War Hijinks.
The program will take you back in time to experience the Civil War firsthand as she entertains with Civil War era songs, projected images, and excerpts from her book, A QUIET CORNER OF THE WAR: The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862-1863.
“We're excited to bring Judy Cook, a well-known author, historian and performer to the Danbury Museum for this very personal and fascinating program,” said Brigid Guertin, Executive Director of The Danbury Museum & Historical Society and City Historian.
In 2002, Judy Cook discovered a packet of letters written by her great-great-grandparents, Gilbert and Esther Claflin, during the American Civil War. An unexpected bounty, these letters from 1862–63 offer visceral witness to the war, recounting the trials of a family separated. Gilbert, an articulate and cheerful forty-year-old farmer, was drafted into the Union Army and served in the Thirty-Fourth Wisconsin Infantry garrisoned in western Kentucky along the Mississippi. Esther had married Gilbert when she was fifteen; now a woman with two teenage sons, she ran the family farm near Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in Gilbert’s absence.
In his letters, Gilbert writes about food, hygiene, rampant desertions by drafted men, rebel guerrilla raids, and pastimes in the daily life of a soldier. His comments on interactions with Confederate prisoners and ex-slaves before and after the Emancipation Proclamation reveal his personal views on monumental events. Esther shares in her letters the challenges of maintaining the farm, accounts of their boys Elton and Price, concerns about finances and health, and news of their community, illuminating aspects of the wartime North often overlooked in Civil War histories.
Judy Cook has made the letters accessible to a wider audience by providing historical context with notes and appendixes. The volume includes a foreword by Civil War historian Keith S. Bohannon.
The show starts at 2:00 pm. A donation of $5.00 is suggested in support of this afternoon of history education and entertainment.
About the DMHSA:
The Danbury Museum & Historical Society was formed to acquire, preserve, exhibit and interpret New England's past; focusing particularly on the heritage of Danbury. Situated in downtown Danbury, the museum preserves the John and Mary Rider House (c.1785), the Dodd Hat Shop (c. 1790), the Marian Anderson Studio and the Charles Ives Birthplace. Huntington Hall, a modern exhibit building houses the museum offices and research library.