11:00am - Seating/Open Museum  |  11:30am - Lunch Served  |  12:00pm (noon) - Speaker​

Monthly held lunch followed by a lecture on a historical topic. ​Topics vary but are always presented by a speaker fluent on the subject. Lectures last approximately one hour.

LOCATION: Armstrong Conference Center (121 S. Broadway, Lebanon, Oh),
COST: $15 for WCHS members or $18 for non-members. (Includes lunch, lecture & museum admission)
Program without lunch is $5 for members / $8 for non-members.

Seats are limited so please purchase your tickets before the event.​
**If you have dietary restrictions, please make us aware before the event. 513 932-1817.**

Proudly serving meals by:

As of April, we have resumed our Lunch & Learn Lecture series. To ensure the safety of our guests, we will serve a boxed lunch, provided by Stengl's Catering, and ticket sales are limited to allow for social-distancing. If you have tickets for a Lunch & Learn that was canceled due to the CODID-19 shutdown, your tickets are still valid. Please let us know if you would like to transfer this credit to a future lecture. You must notify us before attending as seats are limited. Call the office at 513 932-1817.

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Halloween in America | October 20

Halloween is one of the largest commercial holidays in the United States. This Lunch & Learn will take a nostalgic look at the evolution of Halloween in 20th Century America featuring vintage collectibles. Veteran collector Linda Martin discusses how the popular holiday has changed from a primarily adult celebration to the more child oriented event it has become. Her presentation will include a colorful display of vintage Halloween decorations and other collectibles. These rare items are seldom seen today and provide a wonderfully graphic record of the ever-changing look of this classic autumn holiday.
 
SPEAKER: Linda Martin lives in Centerville, Ohio. She began collecting Halloween memorabilia in the 1980s. Currently she has well over 1000 vintage pieces in her collection. Linda began searching for these scarce items at a time when the hobby was relatively unknown.  Since that time, Vintage Halloween items have become one of the most popular collectibles in the country.

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Suffragists & Mother Goose | November 17

The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network will exhibit and present art quilts based on the booklet Mother Goose as a Suffragette written and published in New York City in 1912. Taking cues from popular, traditional nursery rhymes, the booklet gave rather interesting twists to a few lines in the poems, and ended up giving us a lot of insight into what women’s lives were like at the time. In addition the MVAQN will have on display a selection of quilts from their program Suffragists: And They Persisted!  The presentation by members of will look through their quilts at the beginnings of the Suffrage movement and some of the important people and events along the way to passage 19th Amendment concerning women's right to vote on August 26, 1920.

SPEAKER: Members of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network. The MVAQN was formed in the fall of 1992 by a Yellow Springs, Ohio weaver and an Oakwood, Ohio art teacher. MVAQN’s members focus on using their own designs and techniques, some traditional and many innovative ways of making quilts. Its goal is to inspire and support the efforts of its members by providing them opportunities to exhibit and create in the growing art form of non-traditional quilts.

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Golden Lamb Christmas | December 15

For over 30 years Lebanon’s Golden Lamb mounted a Christmas celebration which lasted the entire month of December. These holiday extravaganzas were the subject of countless newspaper articles, regional television broadcasts and even national magazine covers. But what few people know about is the almost one year of preparation it took to make it happen and the problems that occurred along the way. Find out how truth in advertising almost destroyed one of The Golden Lamb’s most popular holiday meals and why February was the most crucial month of the year when it came to Christmas. Hear about the great light bulb shortage of the early 90’s, about the strange calls which came in on Christmas Day when the restaurant was closed and how we learned the hard way that it’s never a good idea to use edible decorations.

SPEAKER: Local author and historian Fred Compton has been collecting and chronicling Lebanon history for over forty-five years.  A much sought after speaker, Fred has spoken to historical societies and educational groups throughout Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Fred has authored two books on local history. He lives in Lebanon with an ever expanding collection of Golden Lamb memorabilia and cheap Chinese watches.

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Previous Lunch and Learn Topics
​Gail W. Rose and John Zimkus revisited the lectures of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Enter the spirit world with author, Randy Overbeck
Judith Dann portrayed suffragette Victoria Woodhull
John J. Zimkus weighed the evidence on Lebanon's “Greatest All-Around Athlete”
​Jeff Wilson discussed his books, Ohio Legends.
Joyce Browning portrayed the rootinest, tootenist resident in Ohio history, Annie Oakley
The History of Beedle Station  from John Zimkus
Jim Crabtree and Teena Baldrige portrayed President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln
The Bones of Cincinnatus performed holiday season classics.
Local author and historian, Fred Compton, discussed the Golden Lamb
Character actor Joyce Lovins Browning portrayed Mary Cunningham: 1870s Cincinnati Body Snatcher
The Little Miami’s "Scenic River" Status​
100 Years of Bridal Fashion in "Brides of Yesteryear"
​The Secrets of the Infirmary Time Capsule
Guadalcanal: A Turn Point in WWII
Historian John Zimkus spoke on Lebanon’s William E. Harmon

Online Lecture Series - Lectures filmed during the 2020 shutdown.