A Legacy of Learning: The Life and Impact of Mary Shaw

A Legacy of Learning: The Life and Impact of Mary Shaw

Join historian Hope McCaffrey for an in-depth look at Mary Shaw, an activist, philanthropist, and school principal who lived in Flushing in the mid-late 19th century. Dr. McCaffrey will discuss Mary Shaw’s many investments in her vibrant African American community, which was one of the earliest free Black settlements in what would eventually become New York City.

About the Presenter:

Hope McCaffrey is the Assistant Program Director of the Richards Civil War Era Center and an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of History at Penn State. Dr. McCaffrey earned her Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University in 2025. She is a historian of gender and politics in the nineteenth-century United States. Her research has been supported by the New-York Historical, the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, the New York Public Library, and the American Association of University Women.

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Host or Publisher Queens Public Library