Medford, Oregon (August 23, 2022)—The Young Men’s Christian Association helped define American civic and moral values at the turn of the last century, but today, many chapters are more concerned with healthy living and a broader sense of community. Historian and researcher Maureen Flanagan Battistella describes how the Young Men’s Christian Association influenced civic infrastructure, social relationships, and the lives of young men and women in Southern Oregon and the Pacific Northwest over the last 150 years during this Windows in Time presentation on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 from 12 Noon–1:00 p.m. at the Medford Library, 205 South Central Avenue. This program will also be screened live at the Ashland Library, 410 Siskiyou Boulevard, and online via the Zoom video conferencing app. All are welcome to attend this free lecture; registration is required. Program registration can be found at jcls.libcal.com/calendar/jcls_event/WIT-Sep-2022.
Maureen Flanagan Battistella is on the Sociology/Anthropology faculty at Southern Oregon University. She is a curator of the Stories of Southern Oregon collection in the Southern Oregon Digital Archives at SOU’s Hannon Library, on YouTube, and in the Internet Archives. Battistella’s research focuses on contemporary land use, agricultural heritage, and culinary narrative in Southern Oregon.
The monthly Windows in Time lunchtime lectures feature well-known writers and historians and bring alive the people, values, and events that shaped our Southern Oregon heritage. The lectures are jointly sponsored by the Southern Oregon Historical Society and Jackson County Library Services. For more information, please contact the Southern Oregon Historical Society at (541) 773-6536 or sohs.org or Jackson County Library Services at 541-774-8679 or jcls.org.