Betsy Ross and the Making of America

Join us on Flag Day for a talk by Marla Miller based on her book of the same title (Betsy Ross and the Making of America). Marla’s talk will focus on how the Philadelphia upholsterer and flagmaker Elizabeth Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole become the iconic "Betsy Ross" of American popular culture.
Marla's book on Betsy Ross was a finalist for the Cundill Prize in History ("the world's largest non-fiction historical literature prize") and was included on The Washington Post's "Best of 2010" list.
Marla is a history professor at UMass-Amherst, where she also directs the Public History program. Her research focuses on the work lives of women before industrialization. She received the Organization of American Historians' Lerner- Scott Prize for best dissertation in Women's History and the 1998 Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Colonial History.
The event will also include a mini-exhibit of flags from the Charlemont Historical Society collection.