On Thursday, November 7 at 7 p.m., the Sheldon Museum presents “The Hutchinson Family Singers: Huzzas, Horrors, and Bumps in the Night,” a talk by Dale Cockrell, a specialist in American popular music. The Hutchinson Family Singers were the best-known, most-loved, and most-hated musicians in nineteenth-century America. Their passionate commitment to talking and singing about the sisterhood of social reforms garnered them notoriety on all sides of a wide range of divides (including spiritualism). Too often overlooked, though, is that they bear a primary responsibility for the ways in which American popular music was then made, heard, and appreciated, legacies still much manifest today.

The talk is part of the programming offered by the Sheldon Museum in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibit Conjuring the Dead: Spirit Art in the Age of Radical Reform.

Free with Museum admission. Space is limited, advance reservations are recommended by calling 802-388-2117.