Around Town Feb. 13

Posted by ChaddsFordLive on February 13, 2025

The Point-to-Point returns on April 6. (Photograph By Jim Graham)

• Returning for its 82^nd year, the Brandywine Hills Point-to-Point Races will be held on Sunday, April 6, featuring pony rides, a parade of fox hounds, and steeplechase races. The event is at the Myrick Conservation Center at 1760 Unionville-Wawaset Road. Gates open at 11 and the races begin at noon.

• The Revolutionary Speaker Series by the Brandywine Battlefield Park returns with a Zoom session featuring Aaron McWilliams talking about Pennsylvania’s Revolutionary War veterans. The session is Saturday, Feb. 22, from noon to 1 p.m. McWilliams will discuss “Finding Your Revolutionary Ancestor and Researching Pennsylvania’s Revolutionary War Veterans.” The cost is $10. Get tickets here.

A screening of the movie Cabrini is at the Kennett Library on Sunday, Feb. 23 from 4-7 p.m.

• The Kennett Library is hosting a special pay-as-you-wish screening of the movie Cabrini on Sunday, Feb. 23 from 4-7 p.m. The film celebrates Frances Cabrini's legacy and her dedication to immigrant communities. After the movie, engage in a Q&A featuring a member of the cast, the producer, and local community voices. It’s a chance to hear behind-the-scenes stories and explore how Frances Cabrini’s work resonates with today’s immigrant experiences. Go here to reserve your spot.

• Winterthur will open a new exhibit — Almost Unknown, The Afric-American Picture Gallery — on May 3. The exhibit is inspired by a 19th-century essay by William J. Wilson, a free Black journalist and educator, and will be on view starting May 3, 2025. Interpreted by curator and historian Jonathan Michael Square, the exhibition presents — for the first time — the gallery imagined by Wilson. Square has assembled drawings, paintings, sculptures, and objects from across the Winterthur collections to represent Wilson’s gallery and Black life in the United States and across the Diaspora. The exhibition is on view from May 3 until Jan. 6, 2026.

Learn about women in science in the early days of America.

• The Chester County History Center will present a virtual talk Early American Women in Science: Stories of Practice and Perseverance on Tuesday, March 4 from 7-8 p.m. The Zoom lecture presents case studies of women who practiced science in the early nineteenth century, including Lucy Way Sistare Say, the first woman elected to the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, the author of numerous scientific textbooks on botany, chemistry, and natural philosophy (as well as one-time resident of West Chester), among others. This talk will provide examples of how women in early America practiced science and explain why some women were able to succeed as scientific practitioners while others faded into obscurity. For more information and registration, go here.