MUSEUM LYCEUMS
From time to time, the Mill Museum presents public programs on various history, textile, and current events topics by guest speakers. We call these programs Museum Lyceums. Upcoming Museum Lyceum programs will be announced on the Museum’s Events page. Historically, the originally Lyceum was a garden in ancient Athens where the great Greek philosopher and teacher Aristotle held outdoor classes. Over time, the word came to be applied to lecture halls, where interesting speakers held forth on educational subjects. Lyceums were especially popular in the 19th century, hosting speakers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Willimantic had its own early 1800s lyceum hall, called Franklin Hall, named for Benjamin Franklin, considered at the time the epitome of the educated, scientific, witty “Renaissance” person. The hall (rebuilt in the late 1800s) is still there, hidden away on the third floor above the historic brick storefront that today houses the “Cupcake for Later” bakery. In addition, the two rooms on the third floor of the Mill Museum’s main building, built in 1877, together known as Austin Dunham Hall, were a library and another lyceum hall. Nowadays, the Museum holds most of its lecture-type programs in Dugan Hall, on the second floor of the Dugan Building — a space that in the 20th century was used for lectures and educational programs, among other things. Recently, we have begun recording our Museum Lyceum programs, either as podcasts (i.e., audio only) or videos (which we also post on our YouTube channel). As we create new Museum Lyceums podcasts and video, we will continue to post them here.
Podcasts
Dr. Challa Kumar, 2024
Dr. Challa Kumar, an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Connecticut, spoke at a Museum Lyceum in May 2024 on his discoveries related to discarded cloths. Professor Kumar explained how recycled textiles and proteins can be used to produce an alternative to plastic. The research is critical given the widespread pollution that is generated by certain kinds of fabrics, as well as plastics. Under some estimates, 400 million tons of plastic waste are generated worldwide. An additional 92 million tons of cloth waste is generated annually. Plastics are polluting the world and their manufacturing is releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide. To mitigate these issues, Dr. Kumar and his colleagues are developing protein-based plastics that are green, sustainable, and completely biodegradable or compostable. The process also uses waste textiles and recycles them as useful plastic replacement products. Currently, the plastics industry is one of the major contributors to the rapid warming of the planet. Warming is due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. His research has led UConn’s Technology Commercialization Services (TCS) to file two patents to protect the invention and its technology. The team is currently in discussions with several industrial partners to commercialize the products.
Videos
Willimantic Rails, Yesterday and Today
A Talk by Railroad Historian Pieter Roos, 2017
Although the mills were here first, railroads soon followed. Willimantic, CT, became a textile mill center in the 1820s, when four cotton mills opened on the banks of the Willimantic River, powered by the water thundering through the Willimantic gorge. The nearest port was Norwich, 17 miles away to the south, at the head of tide on the Thames River. Willimantic industry also used the port of Providence, RI, 47 miles to the east. For more than 25 years, wagons ran regularly between Willimantic and Norwich and Providence, carrying raw cotton in and manufactured thread out. Then, in 1849, the railroad opened between Willimantic and Norwich, vastly increasing the amounts of raw materials and finished products that could could be transported. Willimantic became one of Connecticut’s important rail hubs, along with Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury. Pieter Roos, a railroad historian, visited the Windham Textile and History Museum and recounted the history of Willimantic and the railroads.
The Irish in Connecticut
Written and Performed at the Windham Textile and History Museum in 2016 by Connecticut State Historian Dr. Walter Woodward and the Band of Steady Habits
In May of 2016, Connecticut State Historian Dr. Walter Woodward and his Band of Steady Habits visited the Windham Textile and History Museum (the Mill Museum) for a combination lecture, slide show, and musical performance on “The Irish in Connecticut.” The performance accompanied an exhibit on Irish migration to Willimantic, CT in the 19th century. The exhibit was on display in the Museum’s main exhibit hall throughout 2016. Dr. Woodward graciously permitted the Museum to videotape the presentation. The performance is (c) Dr. Woodward and the Band of Steady Habits. The video is (c) the Windham Textile and History Museum.
Irish Storyteller
Katie Hill, 2016
Hill’s performance accompanied an exhibit on Irish migration to Willimantic, CT in the 19th century. The exhibit was on display in the Museum’s main exhibit hall throughout 2016. The performance was in Dugan Hall.
The European Refugee Crisis in Lesvos, Greece
Heather Shepheard and Roger Benham, 2016
The Nonprofit Murders
A Book Reading by Diana K. Perkins, 2016
In Perkins’s latest novel, a beloved librarian at the Guilford Smith Library in South Windham, CT, falls victim to foul play. A veteran police detective and a clever museum curator set out to unravel the mystery. The novel is part of Perkins’s Shetucket River novels set in eastern Connecticut.
The Road to the Poor House
Michael Westerfield, 2016
The speaker shared his research on poor houses and poor farms in Connecticut, the subject of his recent thorough history of the subject. Westerfield is the former Director of the Willimantic, CT Housing Authority.
Music of the Civil War
Rick Spencer and Dawn Indermeule, 2016
(Co-Sponsored with the Windham Historical Society)
The Armenian Genocide
Ruth Hartunian-Alumbaugh, 2015
