Do you organize informational talks for clubs, historical societies, museums, civic organizations, or students?
Are you looking for a history/social studies professional development provider who focuses on thematic teaching, social history, or the history of daily life?
If so, please contact me and we can discuss your needs for a history or social studies presenter. Contact Cynthia W. Resor using this form.
If you live in Kentucky, consider booking Cynthia Resor for one of her Kentucky Humanities Speakers Bureau presentations.
Cooking in Kentucky Before the Civil War
Cooking before the modern conveniences of electric appliances, pre-packaged foods, and modern recipes was hard work! In this presentation, Cynthia Williams Resor explores the lives of average women in Kentucky, free and enslaved, as they prepare recipes from early 19th-century cookbooks such as Lettice Bryan’s The Kentucky Housewife. Look over the shoulder of a Kentucky woman as she produces, preserves, and prepares food in a typical pre-industrial kitchen. What kitchen tools did she use? What foods were plain, everyday fare, and what was prepared for special occasions? How did she juggle cooking and the other daily chores? The answers to these questions and more will make you appreciate a microwave!
Mourning in Kentucky in the 1800s
Mourning the dead was an important part of life in the 19th century. Cynthia Williams Resor will begin her time-travel tour of this culture of mourning in Kentucky cemeteries by examining the symbols on tombstones and their meanings. Explore customs and beliefs associated with death through the eyes of 19th-century writers and artifacts of mourning such as hair mourning jewelry, stationery, clothing. Finally, we’ll visit the new funeral parlors of the late 1800s and memorial park cemeteries of the early 1900s to discover why mourning customs changed.