A dynamic program that explores the history of women in Northeastern Pennsylvania, with a special focus on Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, champion of women's rights and influential wife of Gov. Gifford Pinchot, is planned for Cornelia's 136th birthday August 26, at 5:30 pm, at the former Pinchot estate, Grey Towers National Historic Site, Milford, Pike County.

“Finding Cornelia: A Personal Story and Tribute,” will be presented by Dr. Josephine Dunn, Professor, Art History, History Department, at University of Scranton, with intention to raise broader critical interest in and study of a remarkable early twentieth-century woman who has left much tangible evidence of her indefatigable efforts to build a better democracy as she defined it in Progressive Era America.

Sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service with support from the Grey Towers Heritage Association, the program also will launch distribution of a brand new booklet, "Cornelia Elizabeth Bryce Pinchot, Activist for Social Change & Grand Lady of Grey Towers," a compilation of photos and quotes from Cornelia and those who knew her.

It is hoped that this booklet and Dr. Dunn's program will help shine light on the remarkable example that Cornelia is of "what women have done, and can still do, for Pennsylvania. Let’s celebrate Cornelia’s birthday with renewed interest in seeing her life documented as it should be in book, film and classroom," Dr. Dunn notes.

Dr. Dunn also is Director, Art & Music Program and Co-Director, Italian Studies Program, at the University of Scranton.

Since 2006 Dr. Dunn’s research focus has been women artists in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but she has also been studying women and general history in this region, specifically women active from 1880 through 1920 in the counties of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Wayne, Bradford, and Susquehanna counties.

She developed and delivered the First Biennial Conference on Women and History in Northeastern Pennsylvania in March of 2007.

Currently she is engaged by four research projects: the life and career of Cornelia Bryce Pinchot of Pike County; Louise Welles Murray of Bradford County; the women of the Century Club of Scranton, 1911-35; and the story of art and architecture in Scranton 1890-1920.

She is an advocate for local history research that is both informative and critical and has authored the following local publications: “The Women of Scranton, 1880-1935,” and “Waverly and The Waverly Community House,” both published by Arcadia Press; and “Classical Scranton: The Architecture of George M. D. Lewis.”

She has co-authored: “I Gave You My Song: the Art of Ora Lerman,” “A Nobler Vision: Early District Nursing in Scranton,” and  “Dancing along the Dead Line: The Civil War Memoirs of Colonel Ezra H. Ripple of Scranton,” all published as exhibition catalogs by the Hope Horn Gallery of the University of Scranton.

Dr. Dunn has been voted Case Professor of the Year at the University of Scranton and is a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit Honor Society

For three years she served as a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, where she introduced many audiences throughout the state to the rich local history of northeastern Pennsylvania and its redoubtable women.

At the invitation of the Pennsylvania Commission for Women, she authored biographies of approximately 65 NEPA women for inclusion in the award-winning brochure, “Legendary Ladies Making History in Pennsylvania: The Northeast Mountains Region.”

The program is free and open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow. Reservations are not required but strongly suggested for an accurate head count.  Please

call 570-296-9630 or send an email to: into@greytowers.org to save a spot.

For more information on programs, initiatives and other upcoming events, visit the Grey Towers Heritage Association.  Click Here to sign up for updates from the Association, Like them on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter, visit their YouTube Channel, become part of their Google+ Circle and follow them on Instagram.

  Also visit the Grey Towers Historic Site website and the Pinchot Institute for Conservation website for information on its conservation research and policy programs.  Click Here to sign up for the Institute’s regular updates.

(Photo: Cornelia Pinchot, champion of women’s rights, marched in numerous Suffragette parades, including on in NYC around 1917.)

[Posted: August 9, 2017]

8/14/2017