Discovering New England Stone Walls

Friends of the Library Lecture series

Why are we so fascinated with stone walls? Kevin Gardner, author of The Granite Kiss, explains how and why New England came to acquire its thousands of miles of stone walls.

His talk explains the many fascinating ways in which stone walls and other dry stone structures were built, how their styles emerged and changed over time and their significance to the famous New England landscape. As an added bonus, Kevin occupies himself during his talk by building a miniature wall or walls on a tabletop, using tiny stones from a five-gallon bucket. Learn from the very best the history of this beautiful New England structure!

Link to The Granite Kiss by Kevin Gardner: https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Granite-Kiss

Photo Credit: Ian Aldrich- Yankee Article- June 2013

This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Peterborough Library who host a monthly lecture.

Find out more about the Friends here: https://peterboroughtownlibrary.org/friends

This month's event is also sponsored by a generous grant from the NH Humanities.

Next up in the FOL Lecture Series:

A Walk Back in Time: The Secrets of Cellar Holes

April 19th at 6:00pm

Northern New England is full of reminders of past lives: stone walls, old foundations, a century-old lilac struggling to survive as the forest reclaims a once-sunny dooryard. What forces shaped settlement, and later abandonment, of these places? Adair Mulligan explores the rich story to be discovered in what remains behind. See how one town has set out to create an inventory of its cellar holes, piecing together the clues in the landscape. Such a project can help landowners know what to do if they have archaeological sites on their land and help stimulate interest in a town's future through its past.

Presenter: Adair Mulligan

Adair Mulligan has a runaway curiosity about the natural and cultural history of northern New England. Author of The Gunstock Parish: A History of Gilford, New Hampshire, she has also contributed to Proud to Live Here in the Connecticut River Valley; Where the Great River Rises: An Atlas of the Upper Connecticut River; and Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country. Executive Director of the Hanover Conservancy, she served for 20 years as Conservation Director of the Connecticut River Joint Commissions. Mulligan holds an MA degree from Smith College.

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