Programs scheduled at Grant Cottage State Historic Site this month

WILTON, N.Y. » The following events are planned at Grant Cottage State Historic Site this month.

Also, the site will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays during the Saratoga Race Course season, which begins Friday, July 21.

• Sunday, July 2 (1 p.m.) Grant and the Press. Find out how the press of the 19th century treated Ulysses S. Grant as he rose to fame and how he responded to it. Join Grant Cottage staff member Ben Kemp to explore the press of Grant’s time. He will highlight the emergence of the political cartoon led by famous cartoonist Thomas Nast and its effect on Grant’s political career. The program will feature displays of original Thomas Nast prints. Copies of “The General and The Journalists” will also be available for purchase, a news release said.

• Saturday, July 8 (1 p.m.) Love Letters from Mount Rushmore. From March to September 1940, Arthur Cerasani, a sculptor and artist from Rochester, worked on Mount Rushmore while his family remained 1,500 miles away. He and his wife Mary stayed connected through their letters to one another. Arthur recorded the trials of carving 60-foot heads on a mountaintop, severe weather conditions and the unpredictable moods and fortunes of master sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Author Richard Cerasani, Arthur’s son, will tell how the discovery of an old trunk lead him to write a story of love, opportunity and yearning set against the backdrop Mount Rushmore’s carving, the release said.

• Sunday, July 9 (1 p.m.) Mark Twain Erupts. Mark Twain was one of the most prolific and acerbic commentators on religion and politics in his time, and his words are remarkably relevant to today’s headlines, over 115 years after his death. He also knew how to poke fun at himself. Living historian and ordained Baptist minister Rev. Jim Ketcham will present a program using Twain’s own words to describe “the whole damned human race,” the release

said. Fine art photographer Craig Murphy will be on site (weather permitting) to share the magic of 1860s tintype photography with visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tintypes will be available for purchase.

• Wednesday, July 12 (1 p.m.) “Music in Grant’s Time” will take visitors on a song-filled trip through the 19th Century. Significant events in Grant’s lifetime, spanning 1822 through 1885, will be introduced with music that was popular during those years. The program will include banjo, singing, and several musical and historical discussions.

• Saturday, July 15 (1 p.m.) Fictions Told Until They are True: Telling History vs. Making Art.

“Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true,” Ulysses S. Grant said in his Personal Memoirs. He wrote his memoirs out of financial need, but also because he was genuinely disturbed by the way facts were interpreted by the growing “Lost Cause” school of thought, the release said. His final battle, which ended at Mount McGregor, was a war of words over the interpretation of facts – an attempt to advocate the truth. Historian and Grant author Chris Mackowski returns to Grant Cottage to discuss the fundamental question that Grant and other writers of history face: What truth am I trying to tell, and how shall I tell it?

• Wednesday, July 19 (10 a.m.) Knee High History. In song and story, program facilitators Diana O’Brien and Tom Smith will tell about Civil Warera heroes on the battlefields, and in cities, towns and villages who built upon the legacy left by the Founding Fathers. Designed specifically for ages 3-9. This program is free and lasts approximately 45 minutes.

• Sunday, July 23 (1 p.m.) Grant Remembrance Day. Grant died 132 years ago, at 63, from cancer. The date is marked with a program at Grant Cottage, where he passed away. Fine art photographer Craig Murphy will create tintypes, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., using the same equipment and wet plate process used in the 1860s. Tintypes will be available for purchase.

Visitors may request a picture with a Grant family re-enactor.

• Tuesday, July 25 (1 p.m.) Like the Fabled Centaur. Ulysses S. Grant told a friend, “I have two weaknesses, my family and my horses.” He was acclaimed as the best horseman of his generation. Hear the general reminisce about his life in the saddle, the war horses that helped him win the Civil War, and his retirement dream of “settling down on my own farm and raising horses.” General Grant will be portrayed by Grant Cottage tour guide Steve Trimm.

• Saturday, July 29 (1 p.m.) The Wheatfield, Gettysburg. Historian Marilyn Jess will share her extensive knowledge about Gettysburg and the 20,000 soldiers who fought at the Wheatfield.

• Sunday, July 30 (1 p.m.) Researching and writing “Leaves Torn Asunder: A Novel of the Adirondacks and the American Civil War.” Award-winning local author Glenn L. Pearsall’s most recent work is a historical novel set in the Adirondacks during the American Civil War. Leaves Torn Asunder weaves a story that portrays what it was like for local farm boys as they went off to war and fought with the 22nd and 93rd New York Volunteer Infantry, units principally recruited in the Southern Adirondacks, the release said. Hear their stories and the equally compelling ones about people on the homefront and how they struggled during the war.

Grant Cottage State Historic Site is the final home of Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War commanding general of the U.S. Army and 18th U.S. president. Impoverished by a Ponzistyle swindle and dying of throat cancer, he moved to the cottage on June 16, 1885.

With the love and support of his family, his publisher Mark Twain, he completed The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant only days before his death on July 23, 1885. The twovolume book’s publication ensured his family’s financial security and gave the world one of the most critically acclaimed memoirs by a U.S. president or historic military figure.

For information go to: grantcottage.org.