Symposium on 18th Century Living and Customs an Evening with Mrs. Hancock

The annual history symposium takes place at Old Main, on Washington & Jefferson College.

6:30 p.m. — Doors and displays open
7 p.m. — Speakers begin
9 p.m. — Reception and displays

The lobby will include:
Registration table - check in here
Bradford House gift shop table (books)
Kate Cunning - cooking demonstrators on the last Saturday of each month in the Bradford House kitchen cabin
Bryan Cunning - 18th century armory display
Other non-profits to be announced.

Admission $40 a person. This is one of the Bradford House Historical Association's annual fundraisers, supporting our mission to educate.
Suitable for those 12 years old to 100.
Each year, the presenters are chosen based on the period in time they represent and their connection to Southwestern PA.
2026 features Mrs. Hancock
Witness to the Revolution: In April 1775 Dorothy Quincy was engaged to Boston’s wealthiest merchant and Revolutionary Hero, John Hancock. On April 14th she was with her betrothed in Lexington, MA when “the Shot Heard “Round the World” was fired. Newlywed in 1776, Mrs. John Hancock was in Philadelphia serving in an unofficial role as her husband’s secretary when he made his most famous signature on the New Declaration of Independence. When the French Alliance was brokered, it was a resourceful and quick thinking Mrs. Hancock who soothed over matters in Boston in the immediate aftermath of the French Bread Riots of September 1778.
As a witness of to the revolution, it seemed Mrs. Hancock was in all the right places at all the right times to tell some of the most interesting tales of American Independence.
Kim Hanley: Bio Actor/Historian, Interpreter, Reenactor, Impersonator