Garden of Literacy

Reading

Garden of Literacy

Community Day

April 20, 2024

The 2024 Earth Day weekend sees our Garden of Literacy, celebrating nature, gardens, and the Spring season. We welcome all community members and visitors to join us at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center for a family friendly day of giveaways, workshops, and a special children’s tour.

To get ready for gardening season, we will give away seeds and plant starts, have gardening experts on hand to talk about the Stowe Center’s award-winning gardens, as well as share gardening advice for home gardeners and aspiring home gardeners. On exhibit in the Day House will be Collections items that highlight plants and nature: such as Stowe’s paintings, scrap books, and sketch books. Writing workshops in the afternoon will that take inspiration from nature and natural elements will be offered, as well as drop-in writing sessions. In the evening, workshop participants, writers, and spoken word artists of all types are welcome to join in and all genres are encouraged to participate!

This Community Day will see the beginning of our public children’s tour and story hour from 2:00 – 3:00 pm, which will be offered regularly on the 3^rd Saturday each month through the summer.

12:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Open Grounds

Grounds Activities: outside activities including hula hoops, bubbles, a Drop-in Poetry and Writing table, and additional games! These grounds activities will be available for all until 5:00 pm.

1:00 pm | Writing Workshops

Poetry Workshop: hosted by Versatile in the Day House (1:00 pm – 2:30/3:00 pm)

Limit of 12 people max
$35 per person

REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Sci-Fi Writing Workshop: hosted by Brenna in the Stowe House (1:00 pm – 4:00 pm)

*Participants are unable to join the Children’s Reading Circle and Intergenerational House tour if attending

Limit of 12 people max

$35 per person

REGISTRATION REQUIRED

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm | Children’s Activities

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm| Children’s Reading Circle

Children and families are invited for a storytelling reading, The Lorax!

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm | Children’s Stowe House Tour – Inheriting Freedom

Open to all ages, this tour is accessible for young children to learn about history and the movements of resistance from the 19th century to today. The tour Inheriting Freedom explores the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the larger history of anti-slavery activism in the United States, with a major focus on love and family as central to freedom struggles in both the past and the present; visitors are inspired to think about how we can continue to build a world where families of all kinds are safe, respected, and free to be together.

5:00 – 7:00 pm | Open Mic

This space is welcome to all artists and encourages workshop participants to share the work they just created. Food will be provided.

Thank You to our Event Sponsors!

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

and support from

Location Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

Doors Open 12:00 pm

Program 12:00 - 5:00 pm

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.