Past Events
This page contains descriptions of and links to recordings of our most recent presentations. For earlier events, please visit our YouTube Channel.
Say Their Names was an event offered by the Longmeadow Historical Society in May 2022 at the First Church on the green. Bringing together months of research, the event honored the lives of sixteen individuals either enslaved by the church's first minister, Stephen Williams, or by others in town and were found in church records as members of the congregation in the 18th century.
In this presentation, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member, Melissa M. Cybulski, will share her findings about the connections between Amherst’s famous poet, Emily Dickinson, and two cousins, both named Richard Salter Storrs, with deep ties to Longmeadow.
In this presentation, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member Betsy McKee talks about some of the stories made visible by Longmeadow's gravestones and research on its unmarked graves.
Al and Betsy McKee live in a house built around 1801 by the gravestone carver Hermon Newell. Once they discovered that their house was built by a stonecutter, they began to learn more about early gravestones in the Connecticut River Valley and nearby New England towns. Betsy discusses stories about early town residents gleaned from the historic Longmeadow cemetery. The illustrated presentation includes information about the original appearance of graveyards, symbolism, gravestone carvers, and stories carved in stone. It also includes exciting discoveries made possible by the use of Ground Penetrating Radar and LiDAR scanning.