Dr. Hall speaks on early religion in Dedham: Dedham at the Center of the Universe. The talk is divided into three sections: Fairness as a Civic Principle (1636); “Visible Saints” as a Religious Principle (1637), and a Solomon- and-the-Baby Decision About Church Property (1820s). Andrea Gilmore of the DHSM also speaks on the First Church silver, pewter flagons (dated 1721 and 1736), and the japanned clock that hung in the church. An engaging Q&A session followed. Click here to watch the presentation.
Dr. Hall is the Bartlett Research Professor at Harvard Divinity School. He writes extensively on religion and society in seventeenth-century New England. He is also engaged in the history of literacy and reading in early America.
Image, left:
Detail: Key to buildings in a “View of Dedham Village,” 1795, by Rev. Jonathan Fisher.