With: Gail Golec and Nancy Botkin

Event Fee: By donation

Event Size: 50 /Adults Only

Margaret Chase and Hartley Dennett were unconventional for Alstead in the early years of the 20th century. They lived together for 20 years without being married, they shared the same unisex clothes, and had radical political, social, economic, education and philosophical ideas. But what were their "conventional" neighbors doing? How did the utopians and the traditionalists live side by side? Through letters, diaries, and one very exciting community meeting in East Alstead in 1919 we can get some clues.

Gail Golec is a professional archaeologist, who has worked on sites around New England for over 20 years. She currently works for Monadnock Archaeological Consulting. Gail was born and raised in New Hampshire and developed an interest in local history at an early age. Most recently, she has taken her years of research and funneled it into writing, producing and hosting a podcast about local history called The Secret Life of Death. www.thesecretlifeofdeath.com. Recently, Gail became a board member of the Mill Hollow Heritage Association.

Nancy Botkin is the granddaughter of Edith and Heman Chase. She spends her winters at her home in San Francisco making books, playing with paper, and taking classes at the San Francisco Center for the Book. She then teaches book arts in the summer. This is her fifth year teaching at Chase's Mill.