2025 Fall Speaker Series | A Taste of the New England Tavern

Join food historians Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald to discover everyday tavern fare and the introduction of new and exciting foods in New England taverns. Enjoy this talk in an intimate tavern-like setting dressed up with seasonal decorations. Sample a “sweetmeat” like gingerbread or plum cake, along with coffee or hot chocolate.

Space is limited. Please select one of two sessions.

About the Speakers

Award-winning scholars Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald have written three highly acclaimed books together about New England and American food history: United Tastes: The Making of the First American Cookbook; Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England; and America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking. They have presented at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, written articles for the international food and food history journal Petits Propos Culinaires, and authored two entries in The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets.

Stavely is a writer and scholar whose interest in the Puritan influence on American and English culture has resulted in a number of critically-esteemed books and articles. He has been a Guggenheim and American Council of Learned Societies fellow and a winner of the Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars. He holds a B.A. and a Ph. D. in English Literature from Yale University and a Master of Library Science from Simmons College. He taught at Boston University, Boston College, and Ohio State University and worked for many years as a librarian in Massachusetts public libraries.

Fitzgerald holds a B.A. in English Literature from Boston University, a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Seminary, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of Rhode Island. She has worked as a college chaplain, a coordinator of a soup kitchen, and for over thirty years as a public librarian in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The one descended from the Protestant English settlers of New England and raised in the Midwest, the other a native New Englander of Irish descent, Stavely and Fitzgerald bring a diversity of cultural background, experience, and perspective to their ongoing collaborative studies of New England and American history and culture. Their hope is that this diversity informs and humanizes their work, helping both to attune them to the muted voices of history and to listen carefully and fairly to those who have been more audible.

About the 2025 Fall Speaker Series – At the Tavern

Join the Fairfield Museum for a series inspired by our new exhibition Eat, Drink, and Start a Revolution! Fairfield’s Taverns. Colonial taverns were the center of social and political life throughout New England. The series explores popular food and drink served in taverns while showcasing taverns as vital community hubs. Co-sponsored by Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center.

Additional Lectures in the Series:

November 16 | The Flowing Bowl: A History of Punch | Catherine Prescott

January 11 | The American Revolution Wasn’t Fueled by Water! Rum, Cider, and the Punch of Independence | Matthew Warshauer

Light refreshments provided. Registration is required. Per talk: $15 for Members, $20 for Non-Members

Ticketing Policy

• No refunds will be given unless the program is cancelled by the Fairfield Museum.
• We do not pro-rate fees for missed days of the series.