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Parmalee Prentice:  Mount Hope’s Polymath
an illustrated lecture
presented by Dustin Griffin
Saturday, January 19, 2019
11 a.m.
at Sweetwood of Williamstown
1611 Cold Spring Road

Many know Parmalee Prentice from his development of Mount Hope Farm in Williamstown with his wife, Alta Rockefeller Prentice.  Though the farm and its owners are renowned for establishing scientifically based breeding methods, Prentice had numerous interests beyond livestock and crops.  On Saturday, January 19, 2019, popular lecturer, Dustin Griffin, discussed Prentice’s writings, collections and more in an illustrated lecture.

View a video of the lecture by clicking on this button: Parmalee Prentice: Mount Hope’s Polymath Video

Prentice near the “Million Dollar Cow Barn” at Mount Hope.

Over the last ten years the lecturer, Dusty Griffin, has presented many talks in the Museum’s lecture series, including “A Short History of Treadwell Hollow,” “The History of Flora’s Glen,” “Captain and Corporal: Two Williamstown Soldiers in the 37th Massachusetts,” “Three Eph Generals in the Civil War,” “The Hoosic and the Ohio: The Cincinnati Connection,” “The History of Fort Massachusetts,” “The History of the West Hoosuck Blockhouse,” “A Tale of Two Cities — and a Country Town,” “Enemies of the People: Political Divisions in Early Williamstown,” and “Buxton:  The History of West Main Street from Benjamin Simonds to Cole Porter.”  He has curated exhibitions at the Museum on “Williamstown in the Civil War,” “Big Days in a Small Town,” and (with his wife, Gale), “Williamstown in the Golden Age of Postcards.”

Dusty considers his lectures to be “micro-histories,” deep dives into narrowly-focused topics in local history.  A collection of his essays on the history of Williamstown and Williams College was published in the fall of 2018 by the University of Massachusetts Press.