In celebration of Womenâs History Month, the Luzerne County Historical Society will present a lecture entitled âFrances Dorrance â LCHSâ First Executive Directorâ at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11, on the Zoom digital platform. Attendees will learn about Dorrance, known as the âFirst Lady of Archaeology in NEPAâ and her commitment to historic preservation and archeology through her work with the historical society, and through the programs she helped create under President Franklin Delano Rooseveltâs administration, to put academics to work during the Depression.
The public is welcome.
The lecture will be presented by former LCHS president and current board member Tish McCarthy Last. Last attended Wilkes University and has recently retired from the development office of Kingâs College. She has been active with the LCHS for nearly two decades. The lecture is one of a continuing series made possible through grants from the Pennsylvania Historic
This first museum was opened in 1877 in rooms the society acquired in the Wilkes-Barre Odd Fellows Hall. It was there that the societyâs collection was finally opened to the public. The society later added a meeting room and library.
Submitted photo
The Susquehanna River flows from Lake Otsego, New York, to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Near Sunbury, it is joined by the west branch; near Pittston, it is joined by the Lackawanna; north, it forms a triangle at Tioga and is joined by the Chemung. The earliest settlers in the region, known as Wyomink, had been living here for thousands of years, as evidenced by artifacts on display at the Luzerne County Historical Society. For unknown reasons, by 1575, this people disappeared from the area. It is unclear how or why. It wasnât until about the 1650s that the area was populated again. A band of Native Americans from the northeast claimed sovereignty over the area. They were the Iroquois Confederacy, the name given to the confederation or league of five nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayga and Seneca. When English settlers began arriving around the 1660s, they decided they wanted this land.