Schedule

March 1, 2026
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Location

370 Beach Road
Fairfield, CT 06824 United States
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3/1 Single Members Ticket
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$ 15.00
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3/1 Single Non-Members Ticket
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$ 20.00
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Imagine quickly packing belongings, young children in tow, and fleeing your home—uncertain if you would ever return. MaryKate Smolenski, PhD candidate in American Studies at Boston University, will dive into the female loyalist experience including Mary Bowes Sayre and Miriam Treadwell Rideout of Fairfield and explore the aftermath of loyalism, tracing the lives of Loyalist women during and after the Revolutionary War. Discover how and why loyalism to the British Crown was often edited out of the picture by later generations.

 

About the Speaker

MaryKate Smolenski is a PhD candidate in American Studies at Boston University. She studies the memory of the American Revolution through print and material culture, and is particularly interested in how descendants of Revolutionary-era loyalists remember their ancestors. Smolenski has previously worked with several museums and historical societies, including the Newport Historical Society, History Cambridge, and the GWU Museum and Textile Museum. Prior to starting her PhD, she completed a two-year fellowship at the Preservation Society of Newport County where she re-interpreted an eighteenth-century historic house museum, Hunter House.

 

About the 2026 Spring Speaker Series – Perspectives on Revolution

As the United States marks 250 years, join the Fairfield Museum for a special series that rediscovers the American Revolution through bold new perspectives. The series explores the era not as a single, unified story—but as a complex, contested, and transformative moment seen through many eyes. Renowned historians and authors will share new discoveries and spark conversation about how the Revolution continues to shape American identity, ideals, and contradictions today.

 

Additional Lectures in the Series:

February 8 | Remember Liss: A New American Founding Figure

April 26 | Battle of Ridgefield: Benedict Arnold, the Patriot Militia and the Surprising 1777 Battle that Galvanized Revolutionary Connecticut | Keith Marshall Jones III

 

Registration is required. $15 for Members; $20 for Non-Members; $45 for the series for Members; $55 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.