List, Here is the first part of a promised brief report on the conference and other events surrounding the dedication of the Peirce Monument at Peirce's grave site in Milford, PA. and sponsored by the Charles S. Peirce Society.
I'll do this in two posts, one for each of the days of the event. As most of the official portions of the event were held on the second day, my next post will be the more philosophically substantive one as it includes brief discussions of the papers delivered that day. This one, I hope, will provide a bit of local history and regional 'color' as context for the dedication and conference. Milford https://milfordpa.us is a charming historic town with more than enough to do on a long weekend, *especially* if you have an interest in Peirce. I had first visited it following the Peirce Centennial Conference, UMass, Lowell, with a small group of Peirce scholars for the express purpose of placing a plaque commemorating the Centennial Conference (2014) in Peirce's study at Arisbe, his home in Milford. It was a moving ceremony at which several folk were asked to speak, I on the connection of Arisbe the house and Arisbe the web site (a bit more on this in my second message which includes our tour of the house the second day). Now, five years later, I was once again visiting Milford, a mere 2 hours by car from NYC, driving up with James Sullivan and Michael Shapiro. The last time I had stayed at the Dimmick Inn and Steakhouse (the inn is currently being renovated) as it was inexpensive and conveniently located, but this time I decided to book a room at the historic Hotel Fauchère. https://hotelfauchere.com in the center of town. Here Peirce famously had to carry his wife, Juliette, up the steep stairs--now there is also an elevator--to their room as she was quite ill when they arrived in Milford (Arisbe, presumably, not yet ready to be occupied). It's a lovely hotel in the heart of town, with a charming garden, two restaurants (three if one includes 403 Broad, a coffee shop with conference rooms on its 2nd floor in the historic Emerson House) next to and a part of the Hotel Fauchère. The following day all the papers would be delivered at 403 Broad. Day 1: The sole official event of the first day, April 18, 2019, was a reception and cocktail party at The Columns Museum. I walked over to the museum, a short hop from the hotel, with Rosa Mayorga https://www.mdc.edu/wolfson/Arts/faculty.asp who had headed the committee responsible for raising funds for the monument, working with cemetery officials, securing a designer and architect, and generally overseeing the development of the monument project. As we walked, I asked her what the biggest challenge of the entire operation had been. She said that it was, and by far, dealing with the Milford Cemetery officials. As we were to learn at the dedication the next day, one (of many) of the issues was that only Juliette was registered as being buried there. Peirce had been cremated and she'd kept his ashes in an urn which was buried with her upon her death. It took Rosa a great deal of time and effort to resolve all the issues associated with the cemetery. The Columns Museum http://pikehistorical.org is housed in a stately neo-classical mansion and well worth exploring. While its most famous artifact is undoubtedly the Lincoln Flag, a very large 36-star flag used to cushion Lincoln's head after he was shot (this has been authenticated https://web.archive.org/web/20111004131701/http://www.pikecountyhistoricalsociety.org/lincoln.html there is as well an exhibit on the renouwed Pinchot family who were friends and benefactors of the Peirces. A member of the Pinchot family, Nancy, spoke at the dedication of the monument the next day. If you ever come to Milford be sure to visit Grey Towers, the ancestral home of the Pinchot family which the Peirce's frequented. https://www.greytowers.org The extensive gardens are especially attractive. Lastly, and most importantly, there is a Peirce Room in the Columns containing a number of artifacts of Charles and Juliette as well as media presentations concerned with their lives in Milford. I was approached shortly after I arrived at the reception by Andre de Tienne, current director of the PEP, who jokingly peeped through the fingers of his hands as I had a few days earlier mentioned that I suffered from a severe case of Prosopagnosia (face blindness) so that receptions and the like had always been the bane of my professional life as I had trouble recognizing people--it can be quite embarrassing. I immediately recognized Andre even with his face obscured by his fingers, he being well-know as a jester and joker: who else could it be but Andre? At the reception, Kathleen Hull https://independentresearcher.academia.edu/KathleenHull who was the chief organizer of the two day event, thanked those responsible for bringing it into being (more on this in the discussion of the dedication of the monument in my next message) and introduced Nathan Houser https://iupui.academia.edu/NathanHouser who offered, in his inimitable and delightful manner, very brief and entertaining remarks, mainly concerning Peirce's life in Milford. After these remarks, some folks who hadn't before been to the museum went to the second floor to view, especially, the Peirce Room. Many stayed to continue chatting with old friends and colleagues. I had a productive talk with Nathan about peirce-l and Arisbe as well as the PEP, then with Kelly Parker, hearing for the first time about his recent work in Peirce esthetics, something I'd learn a bit more about the next day, Richard Adkins about the possibility of doing a slow read on peirce-l of his book on Peirce's Phenomenology, and several other friends and colleagues, including Andre about his séance(!) to be held the following evening after the concluding formal dinner. As the first night dinner was on our own, I walked back to the hotel with Michael Shapiro, our always having more things to discuss than could be encapsulated in a phrase or two, but agreeing that this was an exceptional group of people, many of whom I've come to know well and like very much. Along with James, we closed the day with a very pleasant dinner at Bar Louis in the hotel where most of the other Peirceans were also dining. I recommend the mussels. More of substance in my next post! This will include brief discussions of the dedication of the monument at the cemetery, the visit to Arisbe, and the papers presented. Best, Gary *Gary Richmond* *Philosophy and Critical Thinking* *Communication Studies* *LaGuardia College of the City University of New York*
----------------------------- PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
