Cruise In to the Wright
2024-08-17 10:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Wright Museum of World War II, 77 Center Street, Wolfeboro, NH, 03894, United States
The Wright Museum will welcome back dozens of classic cars, hot rods, and motorcycles for the 11th annual Cruise in to the Wright! Regular museum admission includes access to the car show.
The Bel-Airs will be on hand to supply live music, and food will be available to purchase from MacDaddy’s Rolling Smoke BBQ food truck. Come rain or shine for this annual summer event!
Learn more here.

Lecture Series: Bob DiCicco - Love Letters From the Front
2024-08-20 19:00 - 20:00
Bob DiCicco—Love Letters From the Front
A musical tribute to the American GI’s of WWII. A poignant look at the letters from loved ones and the beautiful music that shaped the incredible era of the 1940’s.

Gallery Gathering with Estelle Parsons
2024-08-22 14:00 - 15:00
One Hour chats with Special Guests in the Exhibit Gallery
Join us on July 11th & August 22nd at 2:00 p.m. for a Gallery Gathering with Estelle Parsons.
Estelle Parsons Academy Award Winning American Actress of film, theater and television who left college to work on farms in the UK during WWII. Ms. Parsons brings productions and talent to Wolfeboro every summer in her support of the Village Players which is treasured by the summer community.

Lecture Series: Dr. Stephen Brecher – Penicillin, a Football Game, and the Golden age of Antibiotics in WWII
2024-08-27 19:00 - 20:00
Dr. Stephen Brecher – Penicillin, a Football Game, and the Golden age of Antibiotics in WWII
Learn about the secret weapon developed in WWII. This miracle drug is credited with saving the lives of 10 to 15 % of all WWII Casualties. Research and production of penicillin became the second highest priority of the war effort in 1943.
A Story About Penicillin, A Football Game, A Fire, World War II and Antibiotic Resistance
Although penicillin was discovered in England, the war there prohibited its production so the effort to produce it moved to the United States in 1941. The Cocoanut Grove fire in 1942 (“The Fire that made Penicillin Famous”) played a significant role in the way our government perceived its importance, which initiated tireless efforts to mass produce penicillin for our soldiers in WW II especially for the D-Day invasion. Penicillin made a huge difference in the outcome of the war.
Dr. Stephen M. Brecher recently retired as the Director of Clinical and Molecular Microbiology at the Boston Veterans Affairs Medical Center after 39 years. He is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.

Lecture Series: David Kertzer—The Pope at War
2024-09-03 19:00 - 20:00
David Kertzer—The Pope at War
Information from the newly opened Vatican archives, a groundbreaking, explosive, and riveting book about Pope Pius XII and his actions during World War II, including how he responded to the Holocaust.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning author David Kertzer is the Paul Dupee University Professor of Social Science at Brown University. He is an authority on Italian politics, society, and history; political symbolism; and anthropological demography. Past president of both the Social Science History Association and the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, he is co-founder and served for many years as co-editor of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. In 2005 Kertzer was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2006 to 2011, he was the Provost of Brown University. A play based on The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, by playwright Alfred Uhry, was performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 2006. In April 2016, Steven Spielberg announced that he would be making a film based on Kertzer’s book, with a screenplay by Tony Kushner.

Lecture Series: Howard Mansfield – I will Tell no War Stories: What our Fathers left unsaid about WWII
2024-09-17 19:00 - 20:00
Howard Mansfield – I will Tell no War Stories: What our Fathers left unsaid about WWII
Growing up, World War II was omnipresent and hidden. This was also true of his father’s time in the Air Force. Like most of his generation, it was a rule not to talk about what he’d experienced in war. “You’re not getting any war stories from me,” he’d say.

Lecture Series: David Chrisinger - The Soldiers Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of WWII
2024-09-24 19:00 - 20:00
(This event was originally scheduled for September 10)
David Chrisinger – The Soldiers Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of WWII
A beautiful reckoning with the life and work of the legendary journalist Ernie Pyle, who gave World War II a human face for millions of Americans even as he wrestled with his own demons.
At the height of his fame and influence during World War II, Ernie Pyle’s nationally syndicated dispatches from combat zones shaped America’s understanding of what the war felt like to ordinary soldiers, as no writer’s work had before or has since. From North Africa to Sicily, from the beaches of Anzio to the beaches of Normandy, and on to the war in the Pacific, where he would meet his end, Ernie Pyle had a genius for connecting with his beloved dogfaced grunts. A humble man, himself plagued by melancholy and tortured by marriage to a partner whose mental health struggles were much more acute than his own, Pyle was in touch with suffering in a way that left an indelible mark on his readers. While never defeatist, his stories left no doubt as to the heavy weight of the burden soldiers carried. He wrote about post-traumatic stress long before that was a diagnosis.
David is the author of The Soldier’s Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II, which chronicles the life of renowned war correspondent Ernie Pyle and Stories Are What Save Us, a profoundly moving book that weaves together David’s journey as a writer, editor, and teacher with a wide range of craft tools and storytelling frameworks and structures he and his students have used to process trauma and conflicts in their own lives to create beautiful stories of growth and transformation. David is also a Logan Nonfiction Fellow and has contributed columns to the New York Times Magazine. He also regularly contributes to The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom dedicated to educating the public on military service, war, and its impact. In addition to his work as an author, David serves as the Executive Director of the Harris Writing Workshop, leads the Persuasive Writing Credential Program, and advises the student-led Chicago Policy Review at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Lecture Series: David Barnhill and Stephen Rueff - Spies and Space
2025-05-28 19:00 - 20:00
David Barnhill and Stephen Rueff- Spies and Space

David Barnhill and Stephen Yogi Rueff are creators of the Spies and Space, which will be shown at the museum this summer. Their discussion will highlight the years after WWII from 1947 to 1991, when the United States and the Soviet Union were dubbed “superpowers”. As each country vied for dominance, the innovations and scientific advancement became enticements for illicit espionage activity. Both the US and the USSR sought to demonstrate their supremacy by initiating a race to outer space, conducting covert espionage and building up immense nuclear arsenals. This discussion will focus on how the real world drama and intrigue of the international espionage, and the fascination with outer space seeped into American and Soviet popular culture during the Cold War.
Stephen Yogi Rueff grew up in Minneapolis collecting comic books in the 1960s and loves his role as co-founder of SuperMonster市City!, where he is a curator and managing director. Stephen has worked in the arts as a performer, designer, manager, and producer, touring around the globe with performing artists such as MacArthur Genius Award Recipients Meredith Monk and Bill T. Jones, as well as Blue Man Group, Karen Finley, and many, many other artists and creatives.
As an Account Manager and Executive Producer for global corporate communications companies Jack Morton Worldwide and BI Worldwide, he produced events throughout the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, and Bahrain.
Stephen enjoys his role as ‘Faculty Advisor/Lead for the Minor in Creative Entrepreneurship’ at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). His academic research in Arts Entrepreneurship explores ways to redefine business practices that can preserve culture and maintain artistic integrity, while being more restorative, regenerative and equitable to all stakeholders.
Stephen’s curatorial research centers on the fictional monsters, superheroes and their creators in American popular culture; the ubiquitous impulse to collect; and how to reveal intimate and personal memories that are embedded into pop culture objects.
Stephen earned his MBA with an emphasis in Leadership and Sustainable Business from Presidio Graduate School. Stephen’s BA from Empire State University, the same college attended by Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man! ‘Nuff said.
David Barnhill has been collecting since the early 1960s. David’s parents felt that anything that inspired him to read and stimulated his imagination was a good thing. As David’s interest in film, literature, and comic books evolved, his parents allowed him to pursue his passion for monsters, villains, superheroes, and the fantastic.
David continued collecting while traveling the world – visiting every continent except Antarctica. David felt it was his mission to buy the scariest and most vicious toys he could find. Inspired by the High Lama in the 1930s film The Lost Horizon, David’s vision was that “in some future time, there will be a need for these amazing toys, spacemen and villains for all to enjoy.”
David’s collection now includes more than 200,000 items, making this Minnesota-based collection one of the largest private toy collections in America. Containing rare and highly sought-after items representing toymakers and monster creators from across the United States and several foreign countries, David co-founded SuperMonster市 City! because he is eager to share his joy in toys, monsters, superheroes, and villains with the world.

Lecture Series: Elyse Graham - Book and Dagger - How Scholars and Librarians became the unlikely Spies of WWII
2025-06-03 19:00 - 20:00
Elyse Graham – Book and Dagger – How Scholars and Librarians became the unlikely Spies of WWII

Elyse Graham will discuss the untold story of the academics who became OSS spies, invented modern spycraft, and helped turn the tide of the war.
At the start of WWII, the U.S. found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to today’s CIA, was quickly formed—and, in an effort to fill its ranks with experts, the OSS turned to academia for recruits. Suddenly, literature professors, librarians, and historians were training to perform undercover operations and investigative work—and these surprising spies would go on to profoundly shape both the course of the war and our cultural institutions with their efforts.
Elyse Graham is an American writer and historian, author of 4 books and teaches at Stony Brook University.

Lecture Series: David S. Foglesong - From Allies to Enemies: Truman, Stalin and the Start of the Cold War
2025-06-10 19:00 - 20:00
David S. Foglesong – From Allies to Enemies: Truman, Stalin and the Start of the Cold War

In April 1945, not long after Harry Truman succeeded Franklin Roosevelt as President, US, British, and Soviet troops met at the Elbe River and celebrated their impending victory over Nazi Germany. Two years later, just a month after Truman announced his doctrine for support of free peoples against outside pressures or internal subversion, financier and political advisor Bernard Baruch declared that the United States was in the midst of a “cold war,” with enemies “abroad and at home.” This lecture will analyze and explain the drastic deterioration of US-Soviet relations from the culmination of the wartime alliance to the first use of the term “cold war” in the United States. It will emphasize the influence of US domestic politics and the major changes in American public opinion about the Soviet Union during those two tumultuous years.
Dr. Fogelson is a historian of American Foreign Relations and Professor of History at Rutgers University Most of my research has focused on American Soviet and American-Russian relations.

Lecture Series: Ron Janowski – The Cold War: Decades of Division and Diplomacy
2025-06-17 19:00 - 20:00
Ron Janowski – The Cold War: Decades of Division and Diplomacy
“The Cold War,” a broadbrush, but comprehensive presentation covering the major events of the Cold War from 1947 – 1989. Highlighting the long timespan and complex interplay between The United States and the Soviet Union spanning 4 decades.
Lieutenant Colonel (US Army Retired) Ron Janowski is a 1976 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and is a 2013 Master of Military History from Norwich University. Both a veteran and an ‘Army brat,’ Ron has traveled extensively throughout his life. He served twenty-two years active duty in the Field Artillery in the United States, Germany, and Canada. He is a 1998 graduate of the Army War College. Upon retirement from the Army, Ron taught Junior (high school) ROTC from 1998 to 2017 He is married to Karen Waid, also a veteran, since 1981. They have a son, Philip.

Lecture Series: Dr. Rowland Brucken - The Bretton Woods Conference
2025-06-24 19:00 - 20:00
Dr. Rowland Brucken – The Bretton Woods Conference

The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to regulate what would be the international order after the conclusion of World War II.
The conference was held from July 1 to 22, 1944. Agreements were signed, that, after legislative ratification by member governments, established the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, later part of the World Bank group) and the International Money Fund (IMF). This led to what was called the Bretton Woods System for international commercial and financial relations.
Dr. Rowly Brucken is a Professor of History at Norwich University. He teaches courses on international human rights law, the Cold War, race and racism in the United States, and, when space allows, the history of baseball. He was Amnesty International USA’s Zimbabwe expert for 20 years, specializing in asylum advocacy and crisis response. He is a retired competitive ultramarathoner, has three grown kids, and loves to hike and bike with his wife Lisa.

Lecture Series: Col. Edna W. Cummings (Retired) - 6888th, Central Postal Directory Battalion
2025-07-01 19:00 - 20:00
Edna W. Cummings – 6888th, Central Postal Directory Battalion

The U.S. Army’s 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the only all-minority, all-female Women’s Army Corps (WAC) unit to serve overseas during World War II. The primary mission of the “Six Triple Eight,” as the unit was popularly known, was to sort the two- to three-year backlog of undelivered mail for U.S. service members in the European theater of war. The unit, organized on March 4, 1945 in Birmingham, England, contained about 850 officers and enlisted personnel who formed four companies. Whereas most Black units in the military contained white officers, every position in the 6888th was staffed by Black women.
Colonel Edna W. Cummings, U.S. Army (Retired) Six Triple Eight Advocate, Author, and Congressional Gold Medal Champion
Retired Army Colonel Edna W. Cummings is a true example of a social entrepreneur and change-maker. Her career path can be described with three words: service, leadership, and change. Col. Cummings was the first African American woman to receive a commission as an Army Officer from Appalachian State University in her home state of North Carolina. Afterwards, she served in key positions in the U.S. Army, and held leadership positions in multi-million dollar businesses, worked on national initiatives, and was able to bring recognition to the all-Black WWII Women’s Army Corps unit, Six Triple Eight. Col. Cummings championed the legislative effort to enact passage of the Six Triple Eight Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021, signed by the President in March 2022. This is the nation’s highest civilian honor. Cummings, has been recognized as a national leader by bipartisan elected officials, and diverse social and business organizations.

Lecture Series: Robert O'Connor - The Jeep Show
2025-07-08 19:00 - 20:00
Robert O’Connor – The Jeep Show

In late 1944 the American military was advancing through Western Europe so fast that entertainment units could not keep up with them. Major Joshua Logan, then an officer in Special Services, noted that the advancing G.I.s were “never in one place long enough to see a show”. He was credited with coming up with the idea of small quick moving entertainment units to entertain at rapid notice called “jeep shows”.
The small troupe usually comprised a comedian, dancer/singer and musician. They traveled in a jeep with their musical instruments and other equipment carried in a quarter ton trailer that would be converted into a stage.
Before Victory in Europe Day the jeep shows played before 23,749 troops in eighty-one performances.
Rooney recalled his first show being between two Sherman tanks three miles from the front in Belgium for 60 soldiers. Rooney’s troupe sometimes put on seven shows a day and covered 150,000 miles in a year. Before Victory in Europe Day the jeep shows played before 23,749 troops in eighty-one performances

Lecture Series: Dr. Edward Gordon – Fireball in the Night: The Fire-Bombing of Japan and the Atomic Bomb Controversy
2025-07-22 19:00 - 20:00
Dr. Edward Gordon – Fireball in the Night: The Fire-Bombing of Japan and the Atomic Bomb Controversy

On April 18, 1942, Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Doolittle led a clandestine bombing raid of sixteen B-24 Mitchell bombers that flew from U.S. aircraft carrier Hornet to Tokyo, a distance of more than 650 miles. The damage inflicted was small, but it foreshadowed the mighty air raids to come.
This program on the bombing of Japan and the dropping of the atom bomb will chronicle the events that made U.S. airpower a decisive factor in the fall of Japan in 1945.
Biography of Edward E. Gordon
Edward E. Gordon is an internationally known historian, speaker, researcher, and author. He taught history at DePaul University, Chicago and was a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians for 10 years. He has presented hundreds of historical programs to museums, libraries, universities, and a wide variety of other organizations across the United States.
Ed Gordon is also the president and founder of Imperial Consulting Corporation. He is the author of 20 books and over 150 articles in the areas of history, business, and education. His latest book, Divided on D-Day: How Leadership Failures Threatened the Normandy Invasion, co-authored with David Ramsay, was published by Prometheus Books.
He has appeared on the CBS network’s “The Early Show,” CNN, the PBS News Hour, National Public Radio, and many other media venues.
Dr. Gordon earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in history at DePaul University, his Ph.D. at Loyola University Chicago, and pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Chicago.

Lecture Series: Shannon McKenna Schmidt - The First Lady of World War II
2025-08-05 19:00 - 20:00
Shannon McKenna Schmidt – The First Lady of World War II
In August 1943, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt set out in secret for the Pacific on an arduous journey that was part goodwill tour, part fact-finding foray, and part informal diplomatic mission. She returned five weeks and 25,000 miles later, having trekked to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia, through the South Pacific and into territory still under enemy air attack.
Shannon McKenna Schmidt, the author of The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, will discuss this unprecedented undertaking, described by a journalist at the time as “the most remarkable journey any president’s wife has ever made.” See Eleanor Roosevelt in a dramatic new light, as an adventurer and traveler, find out how travel was a key factor in her success as First Lady, and learn about the importance of her leadership during World War II.
Shannon is the co-author of two previous books, Novel Destinations and Writers Between the Covers, and has written for National Geographic Traveler, NPR.org and other publications and websites. She has appeared as a guest on television and radio programs, among them MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and has spoken at such venues as the FDR Presidential Library and Museum and the National World War II Museum. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Lecture Series: Arthur Krulewitz, MD CM - The Cuban Missile Crisis
2025-08-12 19:00 - 20:00
Arthur Krulewitz, MD CM – The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis was a major confrontation in 1962 that brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to war over the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in Cuba. During a thirteen day period in October 1962 the world teetered on the verge of a nuclear holocaust as President Kennedy and premier Nikita Khrushchev engaged in high stakes political Brinkmanship.
Arthur is currently a docent at the museum and is a retired internal medicine/ critical care/ pulmonary physician most recently from South Hadley Massachusetts.

Lecture Series: Dr. Fred Johnson, III - Dentist Under Fire: The Heroism of Ben Salomon
2025-08-19 19:00 - 20:00
Dr. Fred Johnson, III – The Heroism of Ben Salomon
By law, only U.S. Service members who distinguish themselves “ through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty” can receive the Medal of Honor – Captain Benjamin Louis Salomon was one of these brave men. Learn the story of how a simple man attempted to hold off the enemy while his patients attempted to clear an aid station. When his body was later found, 98 dead enemy soldiers were found in front of his position.
Dr. Fred L. Johnson III is Associate Professor of History at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Prior to his career in higher education, Dr. Johnson served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps as a Communications-Electronics Officer. He subsequently also served as an Infantry Officer in the Marine Reserves.
A graduate of Bowie State College (now University) Bowie, Maryland, Dr. Johnson earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

Lecture Series: The Freese Brothers Big Band
2025-08-26 19:30 - 21:15
The Freese Brothers Big Band
Eighty years ago this summer, World War II came to an end. As members of the Greatest Generation began to return home, they and their families listened to the music that was the soundtrack of the war years. Join the Freese Brothers Big Band for an 80th anniversary salute to the Greatest Generation and the Home Front with tunes that brought solace and cheer to turbulent times and defined the generation.

Lecture Series: Dennis Vachon - Unfaltering Courage: The Diaries of TSGt. Raymond Vachon, a World War II Army Air Corps Flight Engineer
2025-09-02 19:00 - 20:00
Dennis Vachon – Unfaltering Courage: The Diaries of TSGt. Raymond Vachon, a World War II Army Air Corps Flight Engineer
The Diaries of TSgt. Raymond Vachon, a World War II Army Air Corps Flight Engineer and B-24 Top Turret Gunner in the Mediterranean Theater, tell the gripping story of surviving 50 bombing missions in the war-torn skies of Europe during World War II.
Dennis Vachon, Ray Vachon’s middle child, graduated from the University of New Hampshire, served in the Peace Corps in Senegal, and practiced law in New Hampshire for thirty years. He served ten years in the New Hampshire Legislature. A self-taught artist, Dennis has been painting since his mom bought him a Paint By Numbers set of religious icons when he was ten. He lives in Strafford, New Hampshire, with his wife Jane.

Lecture Series: Linda Matchett - The American WWII Home Front in 29 Objects
2025-09-09 19:00 - 20:00
Linda Matchett – The American Home Front in 29 Objects
Unlike its European allies during World War II, the American mainland escaped physical devastation, as it was not subjected to full-scale invasions. However, that didn’t mean the United States wasn’t impacted by the war. The ramifications of large economic, cultural, and societal changes forced Americans to reconsider entrenched beliefs and traditions. Artifacts collected from across the nation tell the stories of the American people whose lives were shaped by the second “war to end all wars.”
Linda Shenton Matchett writes about ordinary people who did extraordinary things in days gone by. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for the Wolfeboro Public Library.

Lecture Series: Rev. David Lindsay - The Four Chaplains of WWII
2025-09-23 19:00 - 20:00
Rev. David Lindsay – The Four Chaplains of WWII
Nearly 9,000 Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Army chaplains served during the war; hundreds more served in the Navy. Although unarmed, many accompanied troops into combat. They offered spiritual and moral support for scared, battle-weary soldiers. Learn the incredible story of four Army chaplains, aboard the U.S. Army Transport Dorchester as she was struck by a German submarine. The Chaplains spread out among the soldiers, calming the frightened, tending the wounded and guiding the disoriented toward safety.

Lecture Series: Arthur Krulewitz - Relive the Turning Point: The Epic World War II Battle of Midway
2026-05-26 19:00 - 20:00
Arthur Krulewitz – Relive the Turning Point: The Epic World War II Battle of Midway

More than just a naval engagement, the Battle of Midway was a collision of leadership, technology, intelligence, and good fortune that reshaped the course of World War II. While you may know the ultimate outcome, the prelude to the combat is as intriguing as the battle itself—a narrative embodying arrogance, hubris, reticence and daring. Explore the human and strategic forces that shaped the battle.

Lecture Series: Ronald Janowski - Waking the Sleeping Giant
2026-06-02 19:00 - 20:00
Japan’s aggression in the Pacific began long before December 7, 1941. Extraordinary growth in the face of Western imperialism and Japan’s own perceived destiny as an imperial force in the Pacific led to the inevitable clash that changed history.

Lecture Series: Stephen Harding - G.I. G-Men
2026-06-09 19:00 - 20:00
Stephen Harding – G.I. G-Men

This program will be live streamed at the Museum over Zoom. Signed bookplates will be available.
They collaborated with Nazis and Fascists. Conspired against Allies in World War II. Committed unthinkable acts of treason. And triggered a secret manhunt as harrowing as any Hollywood cliff-hanger. The mission was part of the FBI’s “European Operation.” The targets were U.S. citizens plotting against their own country. The goal: to identify and capture these traitors hiding in the shadows of war-torn Europe. To accomplish this, a small group of federal agents assumed new identities to infiltrate underground networks, interrogate key suspects, and expose the enemies within the Allied ranks. It is one of the most fascinating spy stories of World War II—and one that’s never been fully told. Until now . . .
Using newly declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act—as well as exclusive interviews with family members of the FBI agents and unpublished accounts of American citizens accused of treason—this meticulously researched book provides shocking new details behind this crucial World War II operation. From J. Edgar Hoover’s attempt to expand FBI operations overseas to the agency’s covert ties to Britain’s MI5; from the shocking exposure of espionage activities in France and Italy to the final convictions of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials—this incredible saga of spy and counterspy is brought vividly to life by author Stephen Harding in what is destined to be a classic of World War II literature.

Lecture Series: Christopher Gorham - Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France
2026-06-16 19:00 - 20:00
Christopher Gorham – Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France
Lecture and book signing
Matisse at War is a vivid portrayal of the advancement of fascism and war into French life and culture during World War II through the lens of one of the country’s most celebrated post-impressionists and his family.

Drawing on intimate letters and a multitude of other sources, Christopher C. Gorham illuminates this momentous stage of Matisse’s life as never before, revealing an artist on a journey of reinvention, wrenching meaning from the suffering of war, and holding up the light of human imagination against the torch of fascism to create some of the most exciting work of his career, of the 20th century, and in the history of art.

Lecture Series: Doug Most - Launching Liberty
2026-06-23 19:00 - 20:00
Doug Most – Launching Liberty
Lecture and book signing
This enduring book tells the heroic, gripping, yet overlooked story of one of World War II’s monumental achievements—the building of America’s fleet of Liberty ships.

With the shadow of war looming large over American life in 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew it wasn’t a matter of if the United States would be pulled into battle, but when. He foresaw a “new kind of war,” one that would demand the nation be prepared in ways like never before. America’s most critical need in preparation was not drafting more soldiers or manufacturing more guns. It was building more ships that could carry enormous supplies of weapons, vehicles, medical gear, food, and clothing to US and allied troops around the world. One ship could feed three million men for a day—an entire fleet could sustain troops for years.

Lecture Series: Christine Kuehn - Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
2026-06-30 19:00 - 20:00
Christine Kuehn – Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Lecture and book signing
It began with a letter from a screenwriter, asking about a story. Your family. World War II. Nazi spies. Christine Kuehn was shocked and confused. When she asked her seventy-year-old father, Eberhard, what this could possibly be about, he stalled, deflected, demurred, and then wept. He knew this day would come.
The Kuehns, a prominent Berlin family, saw the rise of the Nazis as a way out of the hard times that had befallen them. When the daughter of the family, Eberhard’s sister, Ruth, met Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels at a party, the two hit it off, and they had an affair. But Ruth had a secret―she was half Jewish―and Goebbels found out. Rather than having Ruth killed, Goebbels instead sent the entire Kuehn family to Hawaii, to work as spies half a world away. There, Ruth and her parents established an intricate spy operation from their home, just a few miles down the road from Pearl Harbor, shielding Eberhard from the truth. They passed secrets to the Japanese, leading to the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. After Eberhard’s father was arrested and tried for his involvement in planning the assault, Eberhard learned the harsh truth about his family and faced a decision that would change the path of the Kuehn family forever.

Lecture Series: The Freese Brothers Big Band - Honor, Reflect, Remember: The tunes of the War Years
2026-07-07 19:30 - 20:30
The Freese Brothers Big Band – Honor, Reflect, Remember: The Tunes of the War Years

A special musical program to honor America’s 250th birthday.

Cost: Members $12, Non-Members $16

Lecture Series: Randy Otto as Winston Churchill
2026-07-14 19:00 - 20:00
Randy Otto as Winston Churchill

Renowned Churchill-ian Scholar, Randy Otto has carefully honed his humorous, poignant and astonishingly relevant tribute to Winston Churchill – who a Price Waterhouse Cooper CEO survey named The Most Admired Leader Ever.
Cost: Members $12, non-members $16
