"The Lives of Dutch Women in the "Colonie" of New Netherland"

Shelby Mattice, Curator of the Bronck Museum of The Greene County Historical Society, will speak to us on Sunday, February 12th at 2 PM, at the Ravena Coeymans Historical Society on Mountain Road, Ravena, N.Y.

She will discuss in informal and interesting way information about the Dutch women in the "colonie". She will generally cover their childhood, courtships and marriage customs, inheritance practices and legal status, family relationships, as well as the rolls played by women in the commercial development of the "colonie".

Shelby received a BA cum laude in Anthropology from the SUNY Albany in 1970 and has been affiliated with the Bronck Museum since the summer of 1972. She completed the first comprehensive and systematic cataloging of the entire object collection of the Greene County Historical Society. She continues to have responsibility for collections management and is currently converting the Society's collections to a computer based system. As a consequence of this work her knowledge of the object collections is extensive. She has designed and installed a variety of special exhibits at the Bronck Museum. She helped to develop and actively participates in most current special event programming offered at Bronck Museum.

Shelby is an active researcher with special interest in the social history of the 17th to mid 19th centuries and has been central to the development of Bronck Museum's outreach programs for both adult and youth audiences. She is frequently invited to speak on various historical subjects for a variety of community organizations.

In her free time she is an active gardener and a current member and past President of the Coxsackie Garden Club. When time permits Shelby also enjoys knitting, rug hooking and carpentry.

At the end of the program refreshments will be served.