St. Michaels Library
Saturday, September 24, 2016 at noon
Michael Olmert, author and English Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park
“It’s Not a Town Without a Market House! The Architecture of Civic Capitalism in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries.”
Professor Olmert will speak about the architectural history of market houses, concentrating on their presence in the daily life of Britain and Colonial North America, including Easton and St. Michaels. These buildings and the customs associated with them are so important that Colonial Williamsburg has recently reconstructed theirs, which was built in 1754. But these structures and the very concept of “regulated” buying and selling are much older, going back to prehistoric, classical, and even Biblical roots… Olmert believes that “among many other things, market houses cater to the human need for connection”. He wrote Kitchens, Smokehouses, and Privies (Cornell, 2009), and the Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg (1985-2015). He is also a playwright and a television writer who has won three Primetime Emmys. His article “Getting & Spending: Marketplaces, Market Houses, Market Crosses” appeared in the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Summer 2015. All library programs are free and open to the public. For more information go to www.tcfl.org or call 410 745-5877.
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