TODAY AT NOON: Lunch with Books: The Material Culture of Native Americans in the Upper Ohio Valley in the 18th Century

May 03, 2022
12:00pm - 1:00pm

After a brief overview of the history of the Native tribes, researcher and writer Alan Fitzpatrick presents an in-depth, hands-on comparison of replica tools, jewelry, clothing, hunting gear, weapons, and home construction of the Native-Americans of the Upper Ohio Valley in the 1700’s, illustrating what life was like before contact with Europeans. Fitzpatrick then explores replica European trade goods, showing how the influx of these new metal, glass, and cloth items changed the material and social culture of Native people forever in a relatively short period of time. These iron tools, copper kettles, woven cloth, and flintlock weapons, just to name a few, made day to day life much easier.

In addition to being in-person in the Library auditorium, this program will be available to watch live on Facebook Live, on YouTube, and on the OCPL website's LWB Livestream page.  Log into your Facebook or YouTube account during the program to leave questions for our presenters in the comments box. They will answer them during the live broadcast. 

PRESENTER BIO: Having been born and raised in Canada, Alan Fitzpatrick has been a native of West Virginia since 1973 when he graduated from Kent State University in psychology and became employed at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville as a Classifications Counselor. Since then, he has made the Wheeling area his home and ran a retail carpet business for thirty-three years before retiring. Alan has always been fascinated by the early frontier history of the Upper Ohio Valley, and in 1997, he was a founding member of “Fort Henry Days,” a yearly living-history commemoration and re-enactment of the 1782 last battle of the American Revolution. The event is held at Wheeling’s Oglebay Park every Labor Day weekend. Alan has written four non-fiction early-American history books dealing with the conflict between Native-Americans and colonials during the tumultuous period of the late 1700’s.

FEATURED BOOK: Author of: Wilderness War on the Ohio, In Their Own Words,  The Place of the Skull, The White Indians, Captives and Kin in the Ohio Country, The Untold Story of Isaac Zane

Lunch With Books Livestream starts at noon on Facebook and YouTube.

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"Lunch With Books" is the library’s flagship program for adult patrons. These lunchtime programs feature authors, poets, musicians, historians, and more every Tuesday at noon. Bring lunch (to the Library Auditorium or your computer), feed your brain!