Join us each Thursday from February 29 – April 18 from 12-1 pm for a new session of the Stuhr Museum Book Club, this time focused on the historical nonfiction novel The Woman They Could Not Silence by acclaimed author Kate Moore. This book is available for purchase in the Prairie Treasures Gift Shop or various other retailers.
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Book Club is free for Stuhr Museum and Hastings Museum members and included with regular daily admission for the public. Admission fees are $14 for adults, $13 for seniors, $12 for youth ages 6-12, and free for ages 5 & under. Families that receive food assistance through SNAP or WIC can show their card to receive admission for $3 per person ages 6+ through our partnership with Museums for All, an initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE by Kate Moore
1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened – by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.
The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they’ve been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line – conveniently labeled “crazy” so their voices are ignored.
No one is willing to fight for their freedom and, disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose…
