Our intern Kaitlyn Weirich, a MA candidate in history at The University of Texas at Dallas, traveled from Memphis to Maine this summer and delighted us with her many talents.
A seasoned performer, Kaitlyn created the historical entertainment for the farm-to-table dinners, drawing extensively from the family journals, where she found a new role for Shep – interpreting the Washburn family dog, Philander. She became captivated with Captain Sam Washburn’s Civil War diary which included entertaining stories of his search for love and the extended courtship of his first wife, Lorette.
Kaitlyn wrote and tested detailed lesson plans for our newly revised Civil War program (created in 1999), drawing extensively from the Norlands archives and incorporating a comparison of southern and northern women in the Civil War and an analysis of Congressman E.B. Washburne’s Joint Committee on Reconstruction hearings into the Memphis Massacre of 1866. Kaitlyn also develped web pages and exhibit posters on each Washburn family member. These are in the final stages of editing, so keep an eye out for when we announce their release .
Thank you for such hard work this summer Kaitlyn! We hope to see you back at the Norlands soon
