The Murray County Historical Society is having their 2026 Annual Meeting at the Currie Municipal Building at 2pm on Sunday October 18th. Refreshments will be provided.
Speaking at the event will be Dr. Anita Gaul, giving her program “The Road to 1776.” At the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Great Britain and the American colonies were on the best of terms. The war had strengthened their common identity and solidified the bonds of empire.
Yet at the same time, the war also planted the seeds of mutual misunderstanding and suspicion. Just thirteen years later, in 1776, the American colonists declared their independence from Great Britain, signaling their intent to permanently break the political bonds between them.
What caused the relationship between Great Britain and its American colonies to collapse so rapidly? In this presentation, Dr. Anita Gaul explains the steps that led from the war that fused the bonds of empire to the war that broke them forever.
Dr. Anita Gaul is an historian who currently teaches at Minnesota West Community & Technical College and whose work focuses on local and regional history. Her published works include The Women of Southwest Minnesota and the Great War (2018), Homely Girls and Pretty Babies: A History of the Murray County Fair (2013), and “Living in Perfect Harmony: A Multiethnic Catholic Parish on the Minnesota Prairie, 18811910” in the Journal of American Ethnic History (2010). She was named the 2026 Minnesota West Outstanding Educator and is the winner of the 2026 Minnesota Board of Trustees Educator of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Please note that October 18th the Vikings are not playing, that is their bye week, so you will have no excuse to miss the meeting.
If you have any questions, please contact the museum at 507-836-6533 or museum@murraycountymn.gov.
