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Book Signing at Torrington Historical Society
Torrington author David Ross Bennett will be signing copies of his book, The John Brown Birthplace, at the Carriage House of the Torrington Historical Society, 192 Main St. in Torrington on Saturday, October 26 from 2-4 p.m.
The John Brown Birthplace, published by the Torrington Historical Society, is a history of the Torrington site where abolitionist John Brown was born in 1800. The book tells the story of the site from the earliest days of Torrington to the merger of the John Brown Association, the organization that owned the site since 1901, with the Torrington Historical Society in the summer of 2000. David Ross Bennett, president of the Torrington Historical Society, is a lifelong Torrington resident who has enjoyed a distinguished career in education as a teacher and administrator at Torrington High School, and as a lecturer at the UConn Torrington campus and at Northwestern CT Community College.
In tracing the often checkered past of the birthplace site, Bennett discovered a compelling story that covers early preservation efforts, philanthropic personalities, local politics, and a number of the site’s owners, tenants, caretakers and stewards. Along the way, he introduces the reader to the site’s first "tourist" and explores the dedication of those who sought to preserve the site as a museum. Bennett also explains how the John Brown Association unraveled after the house on the site, in which John Brown was born, was destroyed by fire in 1918. Meticulously researched, the book is both a scholarly treatise and an eminently readable "biography" of a place that has great historic and educational importance.
Copies of The John Brown Birthplace are priced at $15 each. In addition to purchasing signed copies of the book, visitors to the book signing can view art works relating to John Brown which are displayed at the Carriage House. "The End of John Brown," a large oil painting by Ervin Nussbaum, was donated to the Torrington Historical Society by Muriel Nussbaum in September 2001 and a smaller oil done by an unknown artist depicts John Brown's grave in North Elba, NY. Also on display is a bust of John Brown done by Torrington artist Paolo Abbate.
Refreshments will be available at the book signing. For more info call the Society at 860-482-8260.
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