Arts & Entertainment
Book Release and Signing Party
Announcing the release of Bountiful - A History of the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Livestock Show and Fair
Photo-Documentary Book Celebrates the Island’s Families, Continuity and Traditions
The Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society is pleased to announce their new publication, Bountiful - A History of the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Livestock Show and Fair by author Susan Klein and photographer Alan Brigish. Their earlier collaboration published in 2010, Martha's Vineyard - Now & Zen, received rave reviews and awards.
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The information gleaned from Livestock Show and Fair premium books first printed in 1865, a century and a half of newspaper articles including the Vineyard Gazette, the Grapevine, The MV Times, and a number of prominent mainland periodicals, and interviews by Miss Klein with additional excerpts from transcripts of oral histories recorded by Linsey Lee, are woven into a concise narrative which takes the reader through the Society's 154-year history from 1858 to 2012 and 150 Fairs.
Bountiful is a celebration of family, continuity, and tradition depicted through hundreds of photographs taken by Mr. Brigish, donated images from community members, all the fair posters and historic images from glass plates from the Collections of the Martha's Vineyard Museum. Donated to the Museum in the 1990s by Basil Welch who had "rescued" more than 1100 from destruction nearly five decades before, the photographic plates surfaced this winter in a serendipitous moment, nearly two dozen of which are included in Bountiful.
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The book sells for $29.95 and will be available at the Book Signing on August 8 as well as at the 151st Livestock Show and Fair of the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society at the Fairgrounds in West Tisbury at the corner of Panhandle and State Roads on August 16-19.
Do come and enjoy the multi-media presentation at the Agricultural Hall by Ms. Klein and Mr. Brigish on the history of this beloved Island organization and its main event.