New programs for fall at Genesee Country Museum

Visitors to the Genesee Country Village & Museum this fall will witness an 1841 encounter between escaped slave and abolitionist William Wells Brown and a printer sympathetic to his cause in A Slave's Narrative.

Acting in first person, the pair discusses whether the printer will publish Brown's memoirs, Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave. Through their discussion, the audience learns of the extreme risks associated with the abolitionist stance, as well as those taken by slaves to claim their freedom.

A Slave's Narrative will be performed at noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday in September and on October 11-12 and 25-26 at the printing office of an abolitionist newspaper in the historic village.

David Shakes, a social worker at Rochester City School District's School No. 8, portrays William Wells Brown, who escaped from slavery, settled in Western New York, and eventually became a renowned author and lecturer on abolition and slavery.

Long May it Wave - The Story of Our Star Spangled Banner, opens Saturday, September 13 at Genesee Country Village & Museum.

The display includes 25 replica flags and two originals, which trace the complex evolution of the flag from colonial days through to the present, including its roots, which reach back into medieval times.

While Congress first authorized the creation of a national flag in 1777, "the flag wasn't ubiquitous," says Dan Barber, curator of collections at the museum. "It had many interpretations." The stars, which could have five points or six, could be placed in rows, a circle, square, oval or diamond and instead of white, be yellow or silver. In fact, Barber says, there is relatively little documentation of the flag's use until the War of 1812. Even the founding fathers at first were unaware of the design.

It took the War of 1812 to project the flag into American consciousness, Barber says, although, except for militia day, it was probably seen little in the countryside. The poem by Francis Scott Key - which later became the National Anthem - was written during the siege of Baltimore while Key was temporarily under guard on a British ship. The flag he saw was a 30-foot-high banner with 15 stars and 15 stripes.

The flag became the national emblem of unity for the North with the Civil War, Barber says, and thereafter began to assume a mythology of its own.

The exhibit will be housed on the second floor of the historic village Town Hall.

The museum is located at 1410 Flint Hill Road, Mumford. Admission is $12.50 for ages 17-61; $9.50 for ages 62+ or students with valid ID; $7 for those 4-16.