http://stowehousecincy.org/
The first place we toured on Tuesday morning was The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati. More accurately, this was the first place we toured after seeing quite a bit of the Cincinnati area. It is not the easiest place to find and I had ran google maps to help me find my way around on this trip. Normally I use Yahoo map it and have had good luck. Not so with the google maps for this area. Next road trip, if I am going to be in a city area at all, I will need to invest in a GPS on my phone for at least the month the trip is in. But eventually we did locate the Harriet Beecher Stowe home and enjoyed the tour very much. The curator was an older black woman who was very knowledgeable. I had re-read (or more accurately listened to on audio) Uncle Tom's Cabin the month prior to this trip in preparation. And I knew that the years that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Cincinnati provided her with the motivation and the material for the novel. But I did not realize she lived in the area for a long as she did. Also the guide told us that Harriet's father was the president of the Presbyterian Seminary in the area of the home and that is why she came to Cincinnati as a young woman of 21. She married one of the professors of the seminary and she interacted with some of the key abolitionist leaders of the time while in the Cincinnati area. Visiting her home was one of the highlights of the trip for me.
http://skeezicks1957.multiply.com/journal/item/923/Vacation_September_2011_-_The_Freedom_Center
ReplyDeleteFor a blog about the next place we went follow the above link.
Really interesting pictures and sculptures related to slave liberation, Mary Ellen.
ReplyDelete"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is one of those books I've been thinking about getting around too, but it really is an important work of American culture. Thanks for reminding me of this great lady and the wonderful pictorial tour.
A bust of Harriet Tubman?
ReplyDeleteYep, and the sculptures were excellent in general Doug. You would have enjoyed the tour.
ReplyDeleteWhen I listened to it on Audio last month preparing for this trip I thought I had not read it before. But as the book progressed I remembered portions of it. So you may have read it way back when also Doug.
ReplyDeleteit's always a great idea to get up to speed before a trip like this. I toured one of Eufgen O'Neill's homes years ago and read a few of his plays to prepare. A recent reviewing of major works gives you a "presence" of the author when you see how their domestic situation was like.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Last year when we went to the Boston area I so enjoyed the Concord area and came home and listened to works of Nathanial Hawthorn, Louisa Mae Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. I think the trip would have been even more meaningful had I enjoyed their works prior to walking in their footsteps rather than following doing so.
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