Join your friends and neighbors with the return of Essex Historical Society's (EHS) popular Winter Lecture Series, hosted by our partners at Essex Meadows. This year's theme highlights the American Revolution. The Series concludes on Sunday, January 18, at 3pm with the topic "The Woman Who Printed the Declaration" presented by Dr. Emily Sneff, author of the forthcoming book: When the Declaration of Independence Was News.
Connecticut-born printer Mary Katharine Goddard created the first broadsides of the Declaration of Independence to include the names of the men who had signed that document. Dr. Emily Sneff, a leading expert on the Declaration and author of the forthcoming book, When the Declaration of Independence Was News, will explore Goddard's career and the choices she made when printing the Declaration, first in her newspaper in July 1776 and then on the broadsides ordered by the Continental Congress in January 1777. Dr. Sneff will contrast the printings under Goddard's name with newspapers printed under the name of another Mary, on the other side of the Atlantic.
All Winter Lecture Series talks are free and open to the public, held in beautiful Hamilton Hall at Essex Meadows, 30 Bokum Road, Essex. Doors open at 2:30 pm, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact EHS at 860-767-0681 or mjosefiak@essexhistory.org
Dr. Emily Sneff is an early American historian and leading expert on the United States Declaration of Independence. She earned her Ph.D. in History from William & Mary. She is a consulting curator and advisor for museum exhibitions and public programs marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration and the author of When the Declaration of Independence Was News, which will be published by Oxford University Press in April 2026.
Declaration of Independence Image Source: Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Declaration of Independence" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1776. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/f7c09e60-2e5a-0133-e148-58d385a7b928