The Friends are pleased to bring you the First Wednesdays Humanities Lecture Series, organised through the Vermont Humanities Council with the sponsorship of The Alma Gibbs Donchian Foundation, the National Life Group Foundation, and the Institute of Museum & Library Services through the Vermont Department of Libraries. Lectures are free of charge and, unless otherwise noted, are held on the first Wednesday of the month, October through May in the Ilsley Public Library meeting room at 7 PM.
Without the sponsorship of the Friends of the Ilsley Library, our library would have to find other funding to continue these programs. Please consider supporting the Friends of the Ilsley Library.
2017-2018 calendar:
October 4 : Michele Barale
Willa Cather’s Prairie Landscapes
Amherst College professor Michele Barale, the Thalheimer Professor of Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies, will examine the relationship between Willa Cather’s art and her very tangible earth in a presentation entitled “Willa Cather’s Prairie Landscapes”.
Underwriter: A Friend of the Series
November 1: Robert Siegel
Considering All Things . . .
National Public Radio’s Robert Siegel reflects on his thirty years as co-host of the daily news program All Things Considered and the journalistic changes he has seen along the way. Location: McCullough Student Center, Old Chapel Road, Middlebury.
Underwriter: Vermont Public Radio
December 6: Marcelo Gleiser
Physicists’ Dream of a Theory of Everything

Underwriter: Tapia & Huckabay, P.C.
January 3: Emily Bernard
Race, Nation and Toni Morrison’s Beloved
THURSDAY, February 8: Douglas Blackmon
Slavery by Another Name
Underwriter: r.k. Miles
March 7: Lisa Holmes
Presidents Appointing Judges
Underwriter: University of Vermont Humanities Center
April 4: John Keenan
Understanding Scripture
May 2: Mark A. Stoler
Churchill and Roosevelt: The Personal in the Partnership