Lectures at the Funk Heritage Center have long been among the favorite events of our members. March's lineup should be no exception. Information about the speakers and the topics on which they will be speaking can be found below. I think you'll agree that we have an exciting, knowledgeable group of presenters.
Lectures are included in membership.
PRICE for non-members: $7.00
(includes self-tour of museum)
Lectures are held at 2 p.m. in the Estelle Bennett Hughes Theater.
For questions or to reserve a spot*,
please call (770) 720-5970,
or email our programs & education coordinator.
*Reservations are recommended but not required.
CHEROKEE WOMEN—INVINCIBLE SPIRITS
“Cherokee Women—Invincible Spirits” discusses Cherokee women from ancient times to the present, exploring the lives of Cherokee women from the time before Europeans arrived in the Americas to the twenty-first century. Using Cherokee myths, visual images, and artifacts crafted by the hands of Cherokee women, the speaker will weave a story of some of the most powerful women who have walked the earth. Their bravery, tenacity, adaptability, and resilience will provide lessons for all of us in preserving both our heritage and our spirits.
Dr. Alice Taylor-Colbert earned master's and Ph.D. degrees in American Studies from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She served five universities as an American history and public history professor and academic administrator. From 1988 to 2020, she served as an editorial board member of the Journal of Cherokee Studies. In 2004 she participated in a Fulbright-Hayes summer program in South Africa. Taylor-Colbert is a museum curator and archivist and former president of the Georgia Association of Historians. She currently serves on the boards of the South Carolina Historical Association and the Georgia Trail of Tears Association. As an independent consultant, Taylor-Colbert works with South Carolina Humanities on Development and Strategic Initiatives.
PRIMITIVE SKILLS
(includes flintknapping demonstration)
Mr. Andrew Lee will be doing a public flintknapping demonstration at the Funk Heritage Center. Lee is a professional educator with over two decades of teaching experience. His fascination with history began when, as a young boy, he found Native American artifacts in Northwest Georgia. He credits this time in his life as crucial in developing a deep interest in understanding past cultures.
While at the University of Georgia, Lee met master primitive-skills instructor, Scott Jones. After taking Jones's flintknapping class, the fuse was officially lit.
More than twenty years later, through teaching in elementary and middle schools, as well as in the correctional setting, the constant passion in Lee's educational life has been pursuing history, including learning more about primitive skills.
The bark baskets and stone-bladed knives that he creates are ways that he expresses this love of history and nature.
LOCAL EFFORTS TO PRESERVE PINE LOG MOUNTAIN HERITAGE SITES
Donna Coffey Little is the founder of Reinhardt University’s Etowah Valley Low-Residency MFA Program and is currently the assistant director. A transplant from Virginia, she holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, an MA in Comparative Literature from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program. Her most recent essays have appeared in Five Points, StorySouth, Georgia Backroads, The James Dickey Review, and Tiferet. Recent poems have appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Florida Review, and Leaping Clear. Her chapbook, Fire Street, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2012.
In 2019 Donna obtained a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges for Reinhardt University to create a physical and digital exhibit titled Spirits on Pine Log Mountain: An Appalachian Community, 1830-1940. The exhibit can be found at https://dlc943.wixsite.com/pinelogmountain.
Donna has also written many blog posts on the history and ecology of Pine Log Mountain and the Etowah River. Her blog can be found at https://etowahvalleypilgrimage.wordpress.com/.
MILDRED LEWIS RUTHERFORD: FIRST WOMAN TO BE RECORDED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
Dr. Lauren Bradshaw is assistant professor of teacher education (social studies) at University of North Georgia in Dahlonega. She will be speaking on the controversial figure Mildred Lewis Rutherford.
Mildred Lewis Rutherford (July 16, 1851–August 15, 1928) was a prominent speaker and author from Athens, Georgia. She served the Lucy Cobb Institute as its head and in other capacities for over forty years and oversaw the addition of the Seney-Stovall Chapel to the school. Heavily involved in many organizations, she became the historian general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). A speech she gave for the UDC was the first by a woman to be recorded in the Congressional Record.
Additionally, she was a prolific nonfiction writer. Also known for her oratory, Rutherford was distinctive in dressing as a Southern belle for her speeches. She held strong pro-Confederacy, proslavery views and opposed women's suffrage.