Joan M. McGrath Memorial Lecture Featuring Richard Norton Smith

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Times: Doors open at 6:30pm. Presentation by Richard Norton Smith from 7:00 - 8:00 pm, followed by cocktails and hors d'eouvres.

Cost: $100 per ticket

Stephen M. Brewer Theater in the Visitor Center at Old Sturbridge Village

Get Tickets

Please join Old Sturbridge Village and Richard McGrath and his family in welcoming presidential historian and author Richard Norton Smith for the Joan M. McGrath Memorial Lecture.

Pre-registration is required by April 4, 2022. Purchase tickets here.

Questions? Email development@osv.org.

Richard Norton Smith

Presidential historian and author

Richard Norton Smith has a thing about Presidents. He was nine years old when he visited his first presidential home and gravesite, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He has written speeches for Presidents, and books about them. Congress invited him to speak at the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. Gerald and Betty Ford asked him to deliver their eulogies. He has directed five presidential libraries, designed exhibits for a refurbished Ford’s Theater in Washington, told stories on C-SPAN and offered historical commentary for viewers of the PBS NewsHour. Through it all, he has never lost the curiosity, perspective, or sheer joy in reliving the past kindled on the day in October, 1965, when he first visited Old Sturbridge Village on his twelfth birthday.

Read Mr. Smith’s full biography here.

Richard Norton Smith

Joan M. McGrath

Joan M. McGrath loved the Village and all that we value—interpretation, collections, education and preservation. With great perseverance—and sense of humor—Joan made things happen. We can thank Joan for many things including our partnership with the Historical Society of Early American Decorative Arts, collaborating on the annual Gala Vaillancourt Santa, and launching the Distinguished Speaker Series, which we are honored to continue in her name.

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