Old Bridge, NJ – Jan. 26, 2017 – The Old Bridge Public Library is pleased to present programs in February that will examine the historical significance of Thomas Edison’s inventions, aviator Bessie Coleman’s feats, and George Washington as our founding father.
On Sun. Feb. 12th from 2:30-3:30pm, as part of the monthly InQuire Science series, the Library will present “Thomas Edison and his Brilliant Phonograph.” The interactive session will examine how Edison’s important inventions continue to impact our daily lives. Presenting the program will be Kathleen Carlucci, Director, and David Seebaugh, Curator, from the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park. They will lead the discussion about Edison’s birth place, early work experiences and influences, as well as the key inventions he developed at his research facility in Menlo Park. Attendees will also hear vintage cylinder records played on a 100+ year-old Edison phonograph, and will have the opportunity to build their own working phonograph.
On Sat. Feb. 18th at 2pm, art historian Mike Norris returns to the Library for “Meet George Washington.” George Washington was revered during his own lifetime. Through works of art drawn from area museums and others, this visual presentation will explore how his peers saw Washington and how his country remembered him. Norris, who has a Ph.D. in Art History from University of California at Santa Barbara, spent 20 years at the Cloisters Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and has lectured all over the world.
Then, on Sun. Feb. 19th at 2:00pm, there will be a presentation entitled, “Fly, Bessie, Fly” about Bessie Coleman, who, in 1921, was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license. Never one to let other people define her limitations, she traveled to France to learn to fly when American flight schools refused her because of her race. In later years she shared her experiences with children, encouraging them with the words “you too can fly.” Dr. Daisy Century, who has degrees in Science Education from South Carolina University (MS) and Temple University (PhD), will portray Coleman. Century is a teacher and actor who combines scientific methods with creative imagination in order to discover how the historical characters she interprets would respond to a given situation. The program is produced by the American Historical Theatre and is funded by the Horizon Speakers Bureau of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“We are honored that the Edison Center has chosen us as the first venue for this new outreach program, which has traditionally only been offered at the Center itself,” noted Library Director Nancy Cohen. “And we are pleased to be able to raise awareness of Bessie Coleman’s important role in African American history with this program during Black History Month. We are also happy to welcome renowned art historian Mike Norris back again for what promises to be an enlightening lecture.”
The Old Bridge Public Library was recently voted one of the three Best Public Libraries in Middlesex County by the readers of the Home News Tribune. The Library is open seven-days-a-week and is located at 1 Old Bridge Plaza at the corner of Rt. 516 and Cottrell Road in the Municipal Center. More information about this and other Library programs can be found at www.oldbridgelibrary.org or by calling 732-721-5600 x5033. The satellite Laurence Harbor branch is located at 277 Shoreland Circle; phone: 732-566-2227.
###
