event

The legendary Annual Labor Day Art Sale returns to The Cornwall Library this year, marking the seventh anniversary of this highly popular benefit event. The sale is on Labor Day weekend only.

Click on the button “More Information” to learn more and view a sampling of works in this year’s sale.

All proceeds from the sale of donations will benefit the Cornwall Library.

The legendary Annual Labor Day Art Sale returns to The Cornwall Library this year, marking the seventh anniversary of this highly popular benefit event. The sale is on Labor Day weekend only.

Click on the button “More Information” to learn more and view a sampling of works in this year’s sale.

All proceeds from the sale of donations will benefit the Cornwall Library.

The legendary Annual Labor Day Art Sale returns to The Cornwall Library this year, marking the seventh anniversary of this highly popular benefit event. The sale is on Labor Day weekend only.

Click on the button “More Information” to learn more and view a sampling of works in this year’s sale.

All proceeds from the sale of donations will benefit the Cornwall Library.

The legendary Annual Labor Day Art Sale returns to The Cornwall Library this year, marking the seventh anniversary of this highly popular benefit event. The sale is on Labor Day weekend only.

Click on the button “More Information” to learn more and view a sampling of works in this year’s sale.

All proceeds from the sale of donations will benefit the Cornwall Library.

Saturdays – September 12, 19, and 26 (10 am to 11:30 am).

Paint the colors of Autumn in your favorite multi-media including watercolor, gouache, and/or pastels. Colors, textures, and design will be covered in mixing various art supplies. Supplies will be available at the class if you do not already have them.

This class is being offered free of charge due to a grant from the Joelle Sander Memorial Fund. Maximum Participants: 10.

Registration is required.

Saturdays – September 12, 19, and 26 (10 am to 11:30 am).

Paint the colors of Autumn in your favorite multi-media including watercolor, gouache, and/or pastels. Colors, textures, and design will be covered in mixing various art supplies. Supplies will be available at the class if you do not already have them.

This class is being offered free of charge due to a grant from the Joelle Sander Memorial Fund. Maximum Participants: 10.

Registration is required.

Art Opening: Dual Vision: Lazlo Gyorsok and Jack Kearney. Opening reception September 19, 5 – 7pm. Landscape photographs.

Lazlo Gyorsok, a passionate photographer with over five decades of experience capturing the essence of diverse subjects, hails from Hungary. He received his first camera at the age of ten, igniting a lifelong love affair with photography. After traveling through parts of Europe, his first experience with America was New York City where he lived for five years and after that moved to Cornwall. The beauty of Cornwall has afforded Lazlo an endless supply of photographic opportunities.

Jack Kearney was born and raised on Long Island, New York, where an early love of the arts first took shape through music. After earning a degree in Music Technology, Composition, and Performance from New York University and spending 15 years leading technical teams at Apple, he turned his creative focus toward photography. In 2024, he relocated to West Cornwall, Connecticut, dedicating himself fully to capturing the quiet character of the Northeast landscape. Kearney’s work explores subtle light, atmosphere, and the understated beauty of the natural world.

Calling all builders! Join us in the community room for a monthly LEGO club meeting. We will work on a theme-related project together and then spend time free-building. We’ll provide the bricks, just bring your imagination! Registration required, ages 5 and up.

Saturdays – September 12, 19, and 26 (10 am to 11:30 am).

Paint the colors of Autumn in your favorite multi-media including watercolor, gouache, and/or pastels. Colors, textures, and design will be covered in mixing various art supplies. Supplies will be available at the class if you do not already have them.

This class is being offered free of charge due to a grant from the Joelle Sander Memorial Fund. Maximum Participants: 10.

Registration is required.

Tuesday mornings, September 29, 2026, through November 17, 2026, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

In the 1940s, Harvard scholar F. O. Matthiessen reinvented U.S. literary history by resurrecting the almost forgotten writers from the years before the Civil War: Hawthorne, Thoreau, Melville, and Whitman (along with the still-recognized Emerson). Since then, Matthiessen’s roll call of the greats has dominated much of what we see as the move from the early Republic to the Civil War crack-up in 1861. However, Matthiessen’s scholarship omitted vast swaths of writers who didn’t fit his notion of the Transcendentalist mindset. In this literary seminar, we’ll take our initial cue from Matthiessen but work to expand his cast of authors by including other voices, thereby broadening the scope of what it meant to be a U.S. citizen in the fateful years before the chaos.

Live only.

Registration is required. Free, but donations are welcome.

The Reading Schedule:
9/29/2026 Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (1855), The first poem (“I celebrate myself. . . .”—skip the Preface)

10/6/2026 Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (1855), the remaining poems (“Come closer to me” through “Great are the myths. . . .”), and then the Preface

10/13/2026 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855), chapters 1 (“The Author’s Childhood”—skip the introduction) through XIX (“The Runaway Plot”)

10/20/2026 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855), completed, plus “Letter to his Old Master,” “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and the introduction

10/27/2026 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (1850), chapters I (“The Prison-Door”—skip “The Custom-House”) through XII (“The Minister’s Vigil”)

11/3/2025 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (1850), completed, plus “The Custom-House”

11/10/2025 Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (1862), chapters I through XXI

11/17/2025 Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (1862), completed

Two notes on the texts (with which the library can also help):

1. Whitman wrote, revised, and republished LEAVES OF GRASS across his adult life. Please read the original 1855 edition. (None of its poems had titles; these were added later.) There’s an inexpensive Dover edition with the ISBN 978-0486456768, although there are many other editions available. Always check for the 1855 dating.

2. Douglass wrote three autobiographies throughout his life. We’re working with the middle one, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855). There’s a solid Penguin edition with the ISBN 978-0140439182, although many other editions are available. Always check the title.

Tuesday mornings, September 29, 2026, through November 17, 2026, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

In the 1940s, Harvard scholar F. O. Matthiessen reinvented U.S. literary history by resurrecting the almost forgotten writers from the years before the Civil War: Hawthorne, Thoreau, Melville, and Whitman (along with the still-recognized Emerson). Since then, Matthiessen’s roll call of the greats has dominated much of what we see as the move from the early Republic to the Civil War crack-up in 1861. However, Matthiessen’s scholarship omitted vast swaths of writers who didn’t fit his notion of the Transcendentalist mindset. In this literary seminar, we’ll take our initial cue from Matthiessen but work to expand his cast of authors by including other voices, thereby broadening the scope of what it meant to be a U.S. citizen in the fateful years before the chaos.

Live only.

Registration is required. Free, but donations are welcome.

The Reading Schedule:
9/29/2026 Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (1855), The first poem (“I celebrate myself. . . .”—skip the Preface)

10/6/2026 Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (1855), the remaining poems (“Come closer to me” through “Great are the myths. . . .”), and then the Preface

10/13/2026 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855), chapters 1 (“The Author’s Childhood”—skip the introduction) through XIX (“The Runaway Plot”)

10/20/2026 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855), completed, plus “Letter to his Old Master,” “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and the introduction

10/27/2026 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (1850), chapters I (“The Prison-Door”—skip “The Custom-House”) through XII (“The Minister’s Vigil”)

11/3/2025 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (1850), completed, plus “The Custom-House”

11/10/2025 Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (1862), chapters I through XXI

11/17/2025 Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (1862), completed

Two notes on the texts (with which the library can also help):

1. Whitman wrote, revised, and republished LEAVES OF GRASS across his adult life. Please read the original 1855 edition. (None of its poems had titles; these were added later.) There’s an inexpensive Dover edition with the ISBN 978-0486456768, although there are many other editions available. Always check for the 1855 dating.

2. Douglass wrote three autobiographies throughout his life. We’re working with the middle one, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855). There’s a solid Penguin edition with the ISBN 978-0140439182, although many other editions are available. Always check the title.

Tuesday mornings, September 29, 2026, through November 17, 2026, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

In the 1940s, Harvard scholar F. O. Matthiessen reinvented U.S. literary history by resurrecting the almost forgotten writers from the years before the Civil War: Hawthorne, Thoreau, Melville, and Whitman (along with the still-recognized Emerson). Since then, Matthiessen’s roll call of the greats has dominated much of what we see as the move from the early Republic to the Civil War crack-up in 1861. However, Matthiessen’s scholarship omitted vast swaths of writers who didn’t fit his notion of the Transcendentalist mindset. In this literary seminar, we’ll take our initial cue from Matthiessen but work to expand his cast of authors by including other voices, thereby broadening the scope of what it meant to be a U.S. citizen in the fateful years before the chaos.

Live only.

Registration is required. Free, but donations are welcome.

The Reading Schedule:
9/29/2026 Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (1855), The first poem (“I celebrate myself. . . .”—skip the Preface)

10/6/2026 Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS (1855), the remaining poems (“Come closer to me” through “Great are the myths. . . .”), and then the Preface

10/13/2026 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855), chapters 1 (“The Author’s Childhood”—skip the introduction) through XIX (“The Runaway Plot”)

10/20/2026 Frederick Douglass, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855), completed, plus “Letter to his Old Master,” “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and the introduction

10/27/2026 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (1850), chapters I (“The Prison-Door”—skip “The Custom-House”) through XII (“The Minister’s Vigil”)

11/3/2025 Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE SCARLET LETTER (1850), completed, plus “The Custom-House”

11/10/2025 Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (1862), chapters I through XXI

11/17/2025 Elizabeth Stoddard, THE MORGESONS (1862), completed

Two notes on the texts (with which the library can also help):

1. Whitman wrote, revised, and republished LEAVES OF GRASS across his adult life. Please read the original 1855 edition. (None of its poems had titles; these were added later.) There’s an inexpensive Dover edition with the ISBN 978-0486456768, although there are many other editions available. Always check for the 1855 dating.

2. Douglass wrote three autobiographies throughout his life. We’re working with the middle one, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM (1855). There’s a solid Penguin edition with the ISBN 978-0140439182, although many other editions are available. Always check the title.