FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 2007

CONTACT: Katie McElwain, Marketing Coordinator

T: 802-447-1571

F: 802-442-8305

Town Clerk to speak at Bennington Museum

Thursday, March 15, at 7:00 p.m., the Bennington Historical Society will present Bennington’s Town Clerk, Timothy Corcoran, speaking on “Town Clerks, Public Records, and Women in Politics.” The meeting is at the Bennington Museum in the Ada Paresky Educational Center. Town Clerk since 1995, Corcoran has a broad knowledge of local political history as well as many amusing anecdotes concerning life as a Town Clerk.

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Corcoran’s speech will focus on the roles that women have played in running for and serving in elected positions since Vermont gave them the right to vote in the 1920s. Even a State considered forward thinking didn’t always approve of women seeking public office. Some saw such action on the part of a woman as unseemly and brazen.

A married woman was listed on the ballot under her husband’s name, as Mrs. John Smith, never as Mary Smith. Even so, women like Consuelo N. Bailey, Vermont’s Lieutenant Governor in the mid 1950s, were successful in their bid for office. Corcoran will expand on the challenges these women successfully overcame to get elected.

Included in his presentation is a brief history of some of the interesting records in the Town Clerk’s Office, one of which is the original Town Charter from Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire. He will also talk about some of Bennington’s past Town Clerks as well as the various and varied locations in town where the public records have been kept.

The meeting is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

For information about all museum programs, visit the web site at www.benningtonmuseum.org or call 802-447-1571.