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Community Corner

Vikings on the Charles: or, the Strange Saga of Norumbega, Dighton Rock, and Rumford Double-Acting Baking Powder.

A talk by Dr. Gloria Polizzotti Greis, Executive Director, Needham Historical Society

March 9, 2014 at 2:00 pm.  Open to the public - Admission is free at North Hill, 865 Central Avenue, Needham. 

Co-Sponsored by the Needham Historical Society and North Hill

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In 1000 AD, Leif Ericsson sailed west from Greenland and found a soft, rich land of meadows and grape vines that he called Vinland.  Later European explorers sought in vain for centuries to recreate Leif’s discovery, claiming that they found Vinland in Nova Scotia, Maine, Virginia, and finally… Boston?  In the 1870s, retired Harvard Professor Eben Norton Horsford declared that he found the remains of Leif’s legendary settlement on the Charles River, and spent the next 20 years promoting his theory.  Vikings became all the rage in late Victorian Boston, inspiring local architecture, public discourse, and even a statue to Leif Ericsson on Commonwealth Avenue.

Gloria Greis has been Executive Director of the Needham Historical Society since 2002.  She holds a PhD in Anthropology, specializing in the archaeology of prehistoric Europe.  She is the author of three books on archaeology and history, and numerous articles on history, archaeology and various other topics.
 

This program is free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be served.  For more information about this program, or about the Needham Historical Society, please contact Gloria Greis at 781-455-8860 or greis@needhamhistory.org.

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