Scholars Gild

The Scholars Gild May

Plants underpin all aspects of our everyday life – from the food that we eat, to the clothes that we wear, the air we breathe, and the medicines we take. Plant-based herbal medicines have been in use long before modern medicine existed. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew estimates conservatively that 17,810 plant species have medicinal use. Aspirin from willow trees, heart medication from foxglove plants, antiseptics from thyme, malaria treatments from cinchona tree bark, and penicillin from a common mold (technically a fungus not a plant) are just a few of the better-known examples.*

The Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain bioregion has a flora that is rich ecologically, medically, and historically. This lecture will discuss the bioactive components of some of our common plants, their ecological and evolutionary significance, and the fascinating history of plant-derived medicines from colonial times through the Civil War and up to the present. The important contributions of indigenous and enslaved populations in our region will also be touched on.

Participants are also invited to join the speaker on May 17 at 9 AM for a nature walk at the Brandywine State Park Nature Center. While focused on the spring bird migration, it will include plant identification and a chance to reinforce some of the ecological concepts covered in the lecture (for more information contact ScholarsGild@gmail.com).

About our Speaker
A native Delawarean, our speaker Joe Francis, has degrees in Biology, from Johns Hopkins, Medicine from Washington University in St. Louis, and Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh. He has been on the faculties of the University of Pittsburgh, University of Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University.

He currently is a Federal public health professional conducting health system monitoring and COVID bio-surveillance. An avid interest in nature has been his outlet for stress relief since medical school and has recently pursued formal training through the USDA Graduate School/Audubon Naturalist Society’s Natural History Field Studies Program and the Eagle Hill Institute in Steuben, Maine. Joe is a member of the Delaware Ornithological Society, the Philadelphia Botanical Club, the Natural History Society of Maryland, and the Delaware Nature Society.
*Note: the lecture will not offer advice on the diagnosis or treatment of specific health conditions or on foraging for or preparing herbal remedies

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The Scholars Gild, a part of the Arden Club, meets on the third Tuesday of the month, September through June. We usually use a hybrid live-Zoom model. There are sometimes technical glitches so your patience is appreciated.

There is no fee to attend Scholars Gild discussions. We would like to encourage all to make a donation live or at http://ardenclub.org/donate/. Your support helps keep the virtual and in-person lights on at the Club and makes possible dynamic programming like concerts, theater, dance, and of course, our Scholars Gild evenings.

If you would like to receive email notifications about this or future Scholars Gild events, contact the Scholars Gild via ScholarsGild@gmail.com. Plus, follow the “Arden Scholars’ Gild” on Facebook to get all the updates.

Scholars Gild Archives

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Pauline Alice Young (1900-1991) held many titles throughout her lifetime--librarian, teacher, activist, historian, and writer. This talk will describe her life, her accomplishments, and build on the information presented in the online University of Delaware Special Collections exhibition curated by our speaker. It will provide further historical insight into Young and reflect upon the process, and the challenges, of archival research.

Our speaker, Shelby Daniels-Young is the Collections Enhancement and Engagement Archivist in Special Collections at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press. Watch this YouTube video here.

Come with us on an exploration to admire the birds beyond your backyard and gain keys to solving the mysteries of what you are seeing when you go on walks in our rich local environment. This talk will help you learn more about the birds you are seeing in Delaware and further afield.
Sally O’Byrne is a lifelong Delawarean and longtime Wilmington resident. She has been a teacher and naturalist for the Delaware Nature Society since 1986. She leads classes on art history, utility, natural history, and a Master Naturalist class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk_qXYrOa_U

Speaker: Kristina R. Gaddy
Scholars Gild welcomes author and historian Kristina R. Gaddy to speak about her just-published book, Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History (W.W. Norton 2022). In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjo’s key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion.
Watch this fascinating talk here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oZRLLZMLVw

Speaker: John Schoonover
Frank E. Schoonover (b. 1877), a student of Howard Pyle, was a prolific illustrator and artist from the Brandywine School of art. For this Scholars evening, John Schoonover, Frank’s grandson, will give us a preview of his book celebrating these photos, this artist and his important legacy.
Watch this fascinating talk here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oZRLLZMLVw

Ric Gillespie’s writings on the Earhart disappearance have appeared in the organization's journal TIGHAR Tracks and in the Naval Institute’s Proceedings and Naval History and in LIFE Magazine. The organization’s Earhart research and expeditions have been the subject documentaries produced by NBC News, ABC News, the Discovery Channel. Ric’s book, Finding Amelia – the True Story of the Earhart Disappearance, was published in September 2006 by the Naval Institute Press.

Watch this fascinating talk on YouTube

Our speaker, Jeana Carey discusses recent outstanding exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Block Museum at Northwestern University, and the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Their rich collections of art, ceramics, precious metals, metalwork, books, fabrics, and musical instruments of the Sahel region on the southern shores (edges) of the Sahara desert in central Africa.

Listen and watch this fascinating talk here!

Our speaker, Seamus McGraw traced for us the extensive and devastating myths we've constructed to shield us from our own cultural culpability for this ceaseless phenomenon. The myths are pernicious and are now inextricably woven into the fabric of our popular culture, a culture that prizes fame but does not distinguish it from infamy, turns grievance and victimhood into a commodity, and is awash with deadly hardware that has become cultural totems, and in some cases are even fetishized.

Watch this video and learn more about how you can contribute to the solution to this tragic cultural trend.

It is quite remarkable that Shakespeare’s plays are continually staged throughout the world over 400 years after his death. There is a huge variety of interpretive choices that can be found in those texts for readers, directors, designers, and actors. These different interpretations can be a help or a hindrance to understanding the text. April’s Scholars Gild talk, in collaboration with the Arden Shakespeare Gild, guides us through some of those interpretations and explores why we continue to “find ourselves” in Shakespeare’s plays and in the settings in which they are staged.
Linda Emerick is a retired teacher of English language arts and Shakespearean Studies.
Watch this fascinating talk on examining the choices made in various productions of Shakespeare’s As You Like It on both stage and film within the previous twenty-five years.

Our speaker, Anthony Gonzon, the coordinator of the Bayshore Initiative for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), filled us in on the details of what the state with its local partners have been doing to conserve, restore, and promote the lands and waters of the Delaware Bayshore. Watch this fascinating talk about parts of the Delaware Shoreline that you might not have ever known about.

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