On June 30, from 6:30 to 8 pm, C.H. Booth Library will host Laura Keyes presenting “The Founding Mothers,” an illustrated lecture, via Zoom.

The program is part of a series of historical programming the library has arranged this year to celebrate the Semiquincentennial.

Keyes channels her love of historical research and theater into presentations and portrayals of important and often untold stories from the past.

Working to find a practical way to share these unheard stories at length, she landed on illustrated lectures. These lectures include a PowerPoint presentation, with historical images as visual aids and Keyes’s voiceover storytelling.

Speaking with The Newtown Bee this week, Keyes said she has been both portraying and lecturing on various historical topics for over 15 years. Her work is fueled by a desire to share the lesser known and primarily female-centered stories. Her work humanizes them and highlights their intrinsic roles throughout history.

“I want to tell these stories from history that the average person has not read about,” Keyes said June 22. “I want to keep these stories from history alive, otherwise they’re there but they’re not as accessible.”

Her “Founding Mothers” presentation is an opportunity to learn something new about the women who worked to build this country. The lecture introduces audiences to names such as Mary Katherine Goddard and Mercy Otis Warren, whose writing is documented as having influenced men in congress during the American Revolution.

“It was these average people, very often average women, who were capturing this information,” Keyes said. “Perhaps it was later used in a history book, but I can guarantee you the woman herself was not always credited with writing down that piece of history.”

Registration is required for “The Founding Mothers.” Additional details and registration are available through chboothlibrary.org.

Emily Braun is a journalism major at Fordham University with The Newtown Bee this summer. She can be contacted through editor@thebee.com.