This program is supported by a grant from the Bridge Street Fund, a special initiative of Mass Humanities.
Join us from the comfort of your own home for our virtual lecture series. Whittier Birthplace Virtual Lectures will take place over Zoom. Prior registration is required.
Suggest donation: $10/household
Speaker: Joanie DiMartino, Executive Director of Prudence Crandall Museum
Topic: The 19th Century Canterbury Female Boarding School
Discover the Prudence Crandall Museum, a National Historic Landmark located in Canterbury, CT. In 1832, Crandall, the white principal of the Canterbury Female Boarding School, was approached by a young African American woman named Sarah Harris asking to attend the academy. When residents protested the school’s integration and parents threatened to withdraw their students, Crandall closed her school and reopened in 1833 for African American students. Learn what happened next and the legacy of the school with museum curator Joanie DiMartino.