Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife

The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife is an annual series of conferences and publications that explores everyday life, culture, work and traditions in New England's past. Since 1976, the seminar has hosted almost 750 scholarly presentations at its annual meeting and published nearly 400 articles in its annual Proceedings, including work by leading historians like Kevin M. Sweeney, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Jane Nylander and Abbott Lowell Cummings.

First hosted by the Dublin School in Dublin, New Hampshire, on June 19 and 20, 1976, the Dublin Seminar is an annual gathering of avocational and professional scholars (academics, curators, librarians and others) as well as students and enthusiasts who convene each year around a topic in the history and material culture of New England. It was established when Peter Benes, then a graduate student in Boston University’s American & New England Studies Program, organized a gathering of scholars interested in early New England gravestones; initially planned for about forty participants, by the time the seminar occurred some 116 scholars, curators, preservationists and enthusiasts had assembled to hear nineteen lectures. Participants in this event went on to form the Association for Gravestone Studies. Plans were made to convene the following year as well, around the topic of New England archaeology. The seminar began meeting regularly in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1989.

The first Proceedings, Puritan Gravestone Art, edited by Peter Benes, was published jointly by Boston University and The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, in 1977, and included landmark articles like David D. Hall, "The Gravestone Image as a Puritan Cultural Code." Jane Montague Benes began serving as associate editor of the Seminar's annual proceedings by the seminar's second year. The Dublin Seminar proceedings were associated with Boston University until Historic Deerfield became its partner and co-sponsor in 2008.

In 2011, Dublin Seminar founders Peter and Jane Montague Benes received the Bay State Legacy Award for their contribution to scholarship. In 2014, they were recognized with a Leadership in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History.

Puritan Gravestone Art (1976)

New England Historical Archeology (1977)

Puritan Gravestone Art II (1978)

New England Meeting House and Church, 1630-1850 (1979)

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