Frances Anne Hopkins paintings of canoe travel are best described as colorful and accurate scenes of early fur trade history. These cherished prints are widely published and reproduced. However, most admirers of Hopkins work do not know the artist was a woman or that she was from a prominent British family and mother of seven! Join historian Mary Ellen Weller-Smith as she shares the story of Frances Anne Hopkins and her remarkable life as a voyageur’s wife.

Mary Ellen Weller- Smith is a retired teacher of French (MA, University of Minnesota) with a special interest in French-Canadian history and culture. She taught in suburban St. Paul, MN, and in the northern Minnesota border lakes region. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Teacher Exchange to St. Denis, France as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar at the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL. She is also a founding member of the French-American Heritage Foundation of Minnesota. She has spoken about Frances Anne Hopkins at conferences of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) and the Canadian Women’s Artist’s History Initiative (CWAHI).

Space is limited, so please pre-register. This is being offered as an in-person event, drinks and light refreshments will be served.