With the exception of the most ardent collectors and the older generations, the influence and legacy of the big bands is largely forgotten despite their overwhelming popularity and significant role in early radio.  Join Larson as he revisits the sounds that America listened and danced to for more than three decades.  Learn how iconic artists […]

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 […]

The South Mountains in Phoenix contain more than 8,000 ancient petroglyphs. This program will discuss Dr. Bostwick’s long-term study of these Hohokam petroglyphs and will describe the various types of designs, their general distribution, and their possible meanings. Interpretations of the petroglyphs include the marking of trails, territories, and astronomical events, as well as dream […]

Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. was a multi-dimensional man all too often remembered solely for his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the March on Washington in 1963. Yet, there was another Dr. King that emerged after the Selma to Montgomery march and the subsequent Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was this King […]

Veterans from all eras are invited to join a FREE six-session poetry writing workshop. Through readings, exercises, and discussion, participants will delve into their own experiences to practice the concise and potent craft of poetry writing. Childhood, family, friendship, love, loss, career, peace, war, and the everyday--all can offer rich material through which to understand […]

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 […]

Orphan Trains to Arizona is a multimedia presentation that tells the story of the 250,000 orphans and unwanted children who were put on trains in New York between 1854 and 1929 and sent all over the United States to be given away. Through live music, historical fiction, oral history, and informal discussion, participants will learn about […]

Photographs have helped shape both historical and contemporary public perception of Arizona and the West. This program presents a chronological history and social development of photography in Territorial Arizona. Included are rare and unique historical images of daily life, public events, personalities, mining, Native Americans, and environment of early Arizona. Accompanying images are high-quality copies […]

Photographs have helped shape both historical and contemporary public perception of Arizona and the West. This program presents a chronological history and social development of photography in Territorial Arizona. Included are rare and unique historical images of daily life, public events, personalities, mining, Native Americans, and environment of early Arizona. Accompanying images are high-quality copies […]

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 […]

Orphan Trains to Arizona is a multimedia presentation that tells the story of the 250,000 orphans and unwanted children who were put on trains in New York between 1854 and 1929 and sent all over the United States to be given away. Through live music, historical fiction, oral history, and informal discussion, participants will learn about […]