Arizona Kicks on Route 66

Saddlebrooke Mountain Clubhouse 38759 South Mountain View Boulevard, Tucson, AZ, United States

U.S. Route 66, known as the “Mother Road,” was built in 1926. It ran from Chicago to L. A. During the depression of the 1930s, it became the major path by which people migrated west, seeking work, warm weather and new opportunities. Shore shares the history of Route 66 in Arizona, including the impact it […]

Free

Art of the Internment Camps: Culture Behind Barbed Wire

Dorothy Powell Senior Adult Center 405 E. 6th St., Casa Grande, AZ, United States

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1942 WWII Executive Order 9066 forced the removal of nearly 125,000 Japanese American citizens from the west coast, incarcerating them in ten remote internment camps in seven states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Government photographers Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, and Ansel Adams documented the internment, and artists Toyo […]

Free

Steam and Steel Rails: The Arrival of the Railroad and Its Impact on Arizona

Eloy Santa Cruz Library 1000 N. Main St., Eloy, AZ, United States

The building of the railroad across Arizona in 1879-1880 was a wonder of technology and human will. It created a series of small communities linked by their role in supporting that technology and the initiatives behind it. Overnight it transformed southern Arizona, including Vail, whose story resonates with many other southern Arizona communities.  Business and […]

Free

Saving the Great American West:  The Story of George Bird Grinnell

Cochise College Benson Campus 1025 State Route 90, Benson, United States

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes.  Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.”  Grinnell […]

Ancient Native American Astronomical Practices

Oracle State Park 3820 Wildlife Drive, Oracle, AZ, United States

Throughout history, the ability of a people to survive has been tied to environmental conditions.  The skill to predict the seasons was an essential element in the ability to “control” those conditions. Seasonal calendars became the foundation of early cultures for hunting and gathering, planting and harvesting, worshiping and celebrating. The goal of cultural astronomy […]

Free

Saving the Great American West:  The Story of George Bird Grinnell

Oro Valley Public Library 1305 W. Naranja Drive, Oro Valley, AZ, United States

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes.  Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.”  Grinnell […]

Free

Desert Trader: Goldie Tracy Richmond, Trader, Trapper, and Quiltmaker

Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum Fresnal Canyon Road Topawa, Sells, AZ, United States

Goldie Tracy Richmond came to southwestern Arizona in 1927 where she lived in a canvas lean-to. To survive, Goldie mined, ran traplines, and operated Tracy’s Trading Post, living among the Tohono O’odham people for four decades. She was a large woman, and the stories told by the O’odham people of Goldie’s life are legendary. Goldie […]

Free

African American Pioneers of Arizona

Sierra Vista Public Library 2600 E. Tacoma St., Sierra Vista, AZ, United States

Featuring compelling documentaries based on interviews, this presentation shares stories about prominent African Americans who contributed to the life and culture of Arizona.  Such luminaries include the late Dr. Eugene Grigsby, Betty Fairfax, Judge Jean Williams, Rev. Warren Stewart, Councilman Calvin Goode, and Carol Coles Henry.  Each individual’s life is contextualized using prominent events that […]

Free

Archaeology Café (Tucson): The Archaeology of Meat

Casa Vicente Restaurant 375 South Stone Avenue, Tucson, AZ, United States

On February 3, 2015, Dr. Karen G. Schollmeyer and Allen Denoyer (Archaeology Southwest) will discuss what animal bones and stone tools can tell us about hunting, butchering, and eating in the distant past. Archaeology Café is an informal forum where adults can learn more about the Southwest’s deep history and speak directly to experts. We […]

Free

Love and Marriage:  From a Medieval and Early Modern Perspective

Himmel Park Public Library 1035 N. Treat Avenue, Tucson, AZ, United States

Both love and marriage play major roles in everyone’s life, and many of our modern discussions center on these two concepts. But we are often much too stuck in our own emotions to understand fully love and marriage.  This presentation offers a cultural-historical perspective on the concepts, examining their associated approaches, values, norms, and ideas.  […]

Free

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