Upcoming in April

A Double-Header

The Society will be offering two presentations in April: On the 13th, Brittney Ingersoll, a curator with the Cumberland County Historical Society, will offer "A History of Vineland's Brothels." On the 27th, Dr. Virginia Perry, who has compiled a cookbook on "Soul Food Cooking" will discuss her work during a book-signing at the museum. Museum doors for both events will open at 1:30 p.m. and the presentation will start at 2. There is a $2 per person admission charge for each program.

"The Poet Patriot"

The Life of Walt Whitman

On March 16, a crowd of area residents turned out to hear Walter Lafty present a talk about “Walt Whitman: The Civil War’s Poet Patriot” at the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society museum. Lafty, a Philadelphia native, is a Vietnam veteran who is active in Old Baldy, a Civil War roundtable group that researches different aspect of the conflict that divided America in the mid-19th century. Whitman’s poetry was considered highly controversial when it was first published in the 1800s. One of his best-known collections, Leaves of Grass, was described as obscene for its overt language. Born in Huntington, New York, in 1819, Whitman later moved to Camden and continued to write and revise his poetry until his death in 1892. During his presentation, Lafty discussed how the Civil War affected the course of Whitman’s work. One of his poems, “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim,” vividly described the silence of a morning after a battle, while another described the scene in a hospital ward. 



image23

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Can you help?

Have you ever considered volunteering? The Society needs tour guides to assist with the educational program that is offered to fourth grade students. Giving two-and-one-half hours once a month can make all the difference in your life. Those volunteer hours will at times make you laugh, will make you think, will make you learn something new and old about your community and, most certainly, will make a young person remember you and what you gave to them. What does it take?  It takes a smile and a willingness to give a little bit of your time to Vineland’s fourth grade students. What will you do? You will able to--with one-on-one training--expose our young people to their history of what made Vineland great in the past and how it can be even greater for them in the future. Training is short and painless and you will always be working with an experienced volunteer. Join me and the rest of our amazing, dedicated volunteers at the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society. We can all laugh together, we can all think about the old and new stuff and we can all reap the benefits from knowing we handed off our history to our young people in our community.  Contact Ruth Shropshire, Education Coordinator, at vhasedprogram@gmail.com  or 856-691-2925. Or call the Society at 856-691-1111. Leave your name and contact information.