Our Speaker Series is free & open to the public!

Light refreshments will be served.

Join author Stephanie Schorow on Oct. 15 for a visit to the Boston Harbor Islands … in the 19th Century. In July 1891, four intrepid women from Lowell, Massachusetts, set off  for Great Brewster Island in Boston Harbor for an adventure they would remember all their lives. Calling themselves “the Merrie Trippers,” the women created a journal of their 17-day sojourn with entries, illustrations and photographs – like a 19th Century Facebook page. But they did not include their names. Volunteers from the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands, led by Schorow, did a deep dive into the journal’s mysteries. The result is A Boston Harbor Islands Adventure: The Great Brewster Journal of 1891, published by History Press. In her illustrated lecture, Schorow will explore the journal’s discovery, its intriguing entries and photographs, and how volunteer researchers managed to identify the writers.  

Stephanie Schorow is an award-winning reporter and editor, college writing instructor, and the author of nine nonfiction books on topics such as fires, crime, drinking, and sexual politics. She  has been an editor, reporter and/or freelance correspondent for the Boston Herald, the Associated Press, the Boston Globe, and newspapers in Missouri, Idaho, Utah, and Connecticut. Her books include: The Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire; The Great Boston Fire: The Inferno that Nearly Incinerated the City; Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston's Most Notorious Neighborhood; The Crime of the Century; and East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Islands. Her  first novel, Cat Dreaming, will be published in  2023.

This series is made possible by our generous sponsor, Christine Mayer and is presented in partnership with the Wellesley Free Library.