Speakers Series, 2018: Shenandoah Valley’s Germanic Heritage, Karen Good Cooper
Historic Shepherdstown will feature a talk by Karen Good Cooper entitled “Shenandoah Valley’s Germanic Heritage” on June 13 at 7 p.m.
The talk will take place in the auditorium at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education on the Shepherd University campus. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served after the presentation.
With a main street called German Street and a town museum full of German crafts, it’s hard to miss Shepherdstown’s German heritage. Ms. Cooper will provide a broader context in her talk. The Germans brought their own ideas, methods, and customs. Who were they? Why did they come? What happened as they formed their communities and as their children began to move away? Ms. Cooper says the talk is designed to make people think about how the “Shenandoah Deutsch” affected so much of how we behave and how we work together.
Karen Cooper is a 10th generation Shenandoah Valley resident and the head of the Board of Directors for the Shenandoah Germanic Heritage Museum and its parent organization. She graduated from Western Maryland College and has an MA in history from James Madison University. She has been studying local history and genealogy for fifty years and served as the founding president of the Shenandoah County Historical Society.
The 2018 Speakers Series will feature three additional programs:
- September 12, Matthew Webster, Kate Hughes, Katie McKinney, all of Colonial Williamsburg, and Nicholas Powers, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley,” Artisans in the Lower Shenandoah Valley.”
- October 10, Dennis Frye, Chief Historian, Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, “Antietam Shadows: Mystery, Myth & Machination.”
- November 14, Jerry Thomas, Professor of History Emeritus, Shepherd University, “From the Old South to the New in the Lower Shenandoah Valley: The Life and Times of Alexander Robinson Boteler, 1815-1892.”
All of the talks will take place at 7 p.m. at the Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education.
For more information, contact the Historic Shepherdstown Commission office at [email protected] or 304-876-0910.
