Arizona Snake Oil Salesmen, Scams, and Hoaxes with Christine Reid

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION Entrepreneurs offering assorted “get rich quick” schemes and “cure-alls” have visited Arizona since the early days. Benefitting from tales of abundant resources in the territory, limited law enforcement and communication, a scoundrel could create enticing promises of wealth and health without much external oversight. Newspapers often fanned the hysteria only to later denounce […]

FREE

Adventurous Spirits: Arizona’s Women Artists, 1900-1950

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

Before WWII, the resident art community of Arizona was comprised mostly of women, and this talk explores these independent spirits. Kate Cory, one of the first to arrive in 1905, chronicled the Hopi mesas. Marjorie Thomas was Scottsdale’s the first resident artist. Lillian Wilhelm Smith came to the state to illustrate the works of Zane […]

Free

African American Pioneers of Arizona

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, 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

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

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, 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

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Review of Phase I and Phase II of His Life

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

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 […]

Free

Crosscurrents in the Desert: The U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps in Arizona

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

July 1, 2013, marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, an innovation for its time that addressed a healthcare crisis during World War II and improved nurse education across the United States. Participants will learn about Cadet Nurses in participating hospital schools of nursing in Arizona. Also to be […]

Free

Boarded Up: Social and Historical Interpretations of the American Indian Boarding School Era

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

American Indians are the only ethnic group in the United States who, for generations, were subjected to forced education by the federal government.  In the early years, Indian children were hunted down and taken by force to boarding schools, residing there for three or more years.  These children were stripped of their Native identities, not […]

Free

This is Our Land: Early Women on the Arizona Frontier

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

Meet five early Arizona women who endured troubles and hardships during the territory’s early days, all of whom brought a unique perspective to the raw land. Apache warrior Lozen fought to hold onto land once freely roamed by her people. Larcena Pennington crawled down the Santa Rita Mountains after surviving captivity by the Apaches. Mary […]

Free

From China to Mexico: A Journey of Decorative Arts with Brenda Brandt

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

Mexico (New Spain) in the 17th and 18th centuries was an area that enjoyed enormous economic prosperity. Each year, galleon ships crossed the Pacific and brought porcelain, silks, ivory, spices and a myriad ofother goods from China to Mexico. The stylistic features and design of many of these trade items influenced the artists and designers […]

Free

The Math and Science of Music: A Snapshot

Fairway Branch Library 10600 W. Peoria Ave., Sun City, AZ, United States

Long before Pythagoras divided a string in ancient Greece to observe vibrations and calculate pitch frequencies, we were curious about the phenomenon of music. And we are still exploring its mysteries – physicists compare the workings of the universe to the complex interaction of an orchestra! From acoustic science to the structure of scales, modes, […]

Free

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