Mary Jane Bradbury will present a program titled, A Mother Journey: The life of Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks on March 12 at 7 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.
Admission to the program is free.
The program is also available online through a Zoom link, by contacting PRC Board Member Zeke Leeds at eleeds1221@gmail.com, with PRC Program on the subject line.
“While the story of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery is engrained in the history of our nation and essential to our understanding of the past, the largely unknown story of Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks—the mother of Meriwether Lewis—offers critical insight into our understanding of the intrepid explorer. Lucy Meriwether was born into wealth on a plantation in Virginia in 1752 and grew up to raise her own family during and after the uncertain era of the American Revolution,” according to a release from the Portage Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.
“A woman both of her times and ahead of her times, Lucy was determined to fulfill the role expected of upper-class women at the turn of the 19th century while remaining independent and dedicated to her own pursuits. She managed a large plantation household, including dozens of enslaved people, and followed her passion for healing and the natural world, all while remaining fiercely devoted to her son,” according to the release.
The program is an interpretation of her life and journey as the mother of one of the most famous men of his day, rooted in the humanity and the realities of the early antebellum South.
Bradbury has been a storyteller and historic interpreter in the Rocky Mountain west for more than 30 years.
She’s a member of Humanities Montana and Colorado Humanities speakers bureaus, and an artist in residence for the Charles M. Russell Museum and the Montana Historical Society, according to the release.
Bradbury holds a masters in speech communication from Regis University, and lives in Helena.
The program is part of the Ida Johnson Lecture Series and is funded by Humanities Montana in partnership with the Portage Route Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.
