East Hampton Library Summer Lectures

The East Hampton Library will present two Tom Twomey Series lectures this summer. The series was established in memory of the late Tom Twomey (1914-2014), the former chairman of the library’s board of managers.

On Thursday, July 25, at 5 p.m. Author Dr. Sarah Gronningsater will present her new book, “The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom.”

The book tells a new story about the long history of emancipation in the United States. It follows the cradle-to-grave experiences of a remarkable generation of Black New Yorkers who were born into quasi-freedom after the American Revolution and reached adulthood on the eve the Civil War. Gronningsater examines the role this generation played in advocating for equality before the law, excellent public education, and the end of slavery nationwide. In a broad sense, this generation helped shape important changes to the U.S. Constitution as well as groundbreaking federal civil rights legislation.

Sarah Gronningsater, an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, is a scholar of 18th and 19th century United States. She teaches courses on the history of American law, the American Revolution, the history of U.S. baseball, and American democracy. She has particular research interests in the abolition of slavery in the North and in local histories of New York State.

On Thursday, August 22, at 5 p.m. film director Nina Rosenblum and author Carol Kino will share their work about the McLaughlin twins, Kathryn McLaughlin Abbe and Frances McLaughlin-Gill in “Double Click — The McLaughlin Twins and Their Groundbreaking Work in Magazine Photography.”

The twins began their careers as photographers just before Pearl Harbor. Frances was the only female photographer in the Condé Nast Studio, shooting for Vogue and Glamour, and the first woman to cover the Paris collections for Vogue. Kathryn worked for career-girl magazines, like Charm and Mademoiselle, which flourished in the 1940s and later became a renowned photographer of children. The twins, who began visiting Montauk during the war, were part of the East End art community, and Kathryn and her husband built one of the first summer cottages on the Old Montauk Highway.

Nina Rosenblum will open the event by sharing her 28 minute film on the sisters, “Twin Lenses,” followed by Carol Kino speaking about and showing pictures from her new book “Double Click,” which involved intensive original research in New York and on the East End. Nicole Straus will then moderate a discussion with Rosenblum and Kino about their works, the McLaughlin twins, and the twins’ ties to the East End.

Kino’s book, “Double Click,” will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Both programs will be presented in the library’s Baldwin Family Lecture Room. Admission is free. Advanced reservations are requested but not required, via eventbrite.com. Reservations may also be made at the library by calling 631-324-0222 ext. 4 or emailing andrea@easthamptonlibrary.org. East Hampton Library is at 158 Main Street in East Hampton.