Talks and Workshops

Richard Sloan, a noted Lincoln scholar and founder of the Lincoln Society of New York, will give a talk entitled “Eyewitness to Lincoln’s Assassination: William Withers of Rye and Band Leader at Ford’s Theater” at the Knapp House, Saturday, April 18, at 2 p.m. Sloan will recount Withers’ career, the night of Lincoln’s assassination, Booth’s stabbing of Withers, and Withers’ life in Rye. The Knapp House Archives are at 265 Rye Beach Avenue. The event is free. For more information, call 967-8657.

This year is the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage to America, when he explored the Northeast coast and entered the (future) Hudson River in pursuit of a Northwest Passage to the Far East. Find out “What Henry Hudson Knew and When Did He Know It” at a lecture at the Knapp House Saturday, April 25, at 2 p.m. The speaker is distinguished scholar Alice Hudson, Chief of the Map Division of the New York Public Library. Her presentation includes images of rare maps and documents, which allow us access to the mind and emotions and world of Henry Hudson. The event is free.

Behind the beauty of many of our common spring wildflowers are fascinating life histories, important uses in modern medicine, and interesting facts about their pollination, seed dispersal, and predation.

Learn more at a talk by author/photographer Carol Gracie at the Rye Free Reading Room Tuesday, April 14, at 6 p.m. For twenty-five years, Gracie planned and led natural history tours for The New York Botanical Garden to a variety of destinations, among them the Amazon, the Galápagos, Costa Rica, and European regions known for their profusion of wildflowers. The event is sponsored by Westchester Fairfield Horticultural Society.