Betsey Means protraying Jane Addams- march 2024

Join us for historical theatrical experience stepping back into the Victorian Era WomanLore's one-woman performances are adapted directly from journals, autobiographies, and personal writings. WomanLore offers a complete theatrical experience, authentically costumed and designed, accurately evoking the era being portrayed.

The cost is $7 for members and $10 for non-Members

Attendees will be provided with afternoon tea and cookies.

Mary Kingsley 1890

In the long list of names of explorers one remarkable woman stands out: Mary Henrietta Kingsley (1862-1900), who set sail for Equatorial Africa in 1893. She had two objectives: to bring back specimens of fish for the British Museum and to collect information on African religions. By the time she returned to England in 1895 the articles she had published in the press had already made her famous and her readers were eager for more. She wrote a first book of 750 pages, published in 1897: Travels in West Africa. An instant success, the book was reprinted four times in its first year and followed by a second volume, West African Studies (1899). Her writings are primarily ethnographic, and she was quickly acknowledged as an authority on the African world.

Betsey Means adapted Mary Kingsley’s lecture “Fish & Fetish” from Mary’s letters, journals and best selling books “Travels in West Africa” and “West African Studies.” Over a century later “Travels in West Africa” is number 7 out of the 100 best travel books of all time through the National Geographic Society.