Duende Drama & Literature

Bringing Plays and Stories to Our Schools and Communities

  • Home
  • About Duende
    • Organization and Board
    • Support Duende
  • Live Performance
    • ABOLITION
    • Money Man
    • The Air We Share
    • Friendly Fire
      • Resources
    • The Starry Messenger
    • The Great Blight
    • Gunpowder Man
      • Resources
    • Seabiscuit
    • The Betsy Ross Of the Bears
      • Resources
    • Dust Storm
    • On Fire!
    • Inventing the West
    • Vivien
    • Playwrights Collective
    • California History Theatre 2002
    • The Bookshelf
  • Video
    • ABOLITION – The Film
    • Money Man Video
  • Rick’s Blog
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Live Performance / The Betsy Ross Of the Bears / The Betsy Ross Of the Bears Resources

The Betsy Ross Of the Bears Resources

  • Study Guides
  • Web Links

Study Guides

The Betsy Ross Of the Bears

Note: All study guides and sources are in PDF format.

  • Teachers’ Guide

Web Links

A good place to start

  • The West
    This is the site for the PBS series The West. It has a fine overview and many pages directly relevant to the period of the play.

Sites on the Bartleson-Bidwell Party and the Period before the Mexican American war

  • San Francisco Museum
    This is one of Bidwell’s accounts of the journey that Nancy Kelsey shared and the period before the Gold Rush. The site has many fine links to other primary sources on the Early U.S. period.
  • Library of Congress
    This is the home page for the “California as I Saw It” section of the Library of Congress web site. From here you can find dozens of primary sources, including Bidwell’s memoir, Jessie Benton Fremont’s writing on California, J. Ross Browne (who was the secretary at the California Constitutional Convention), Dame Shirley (under Clappe, Louisa) and many more.
  • Kit Carson — PBS Series The West
    This article tells the story of Kit Carson’s relationship with Captain Fremont during the Bear Flag Revolt.

Sites for the Mexican American War

  • The History Guy
    A brief outline of the Mexican American War with links to other relevant sites.
  • The U.S.-Mexican War — PBS
    Extensive PBS site on the Mexican American War.
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
    The treaty which ended the war.
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Grand Canyon Site
    Links to relevant Education & Government sites relating to the treaty.
  • The Bear Flag Revolt
    A summary of the Mexican American War in California.

Sites for the Indians the Kelseys would have Dealt With

  • Pomo People: Brief History
    This site on Pomo history and culture deals with both the past and the survival of the culture today.
  • Index of “The North American Indian”
    This is the tribal index page for the E.S. Curtis collection. Curtis was the great photographer of Indians a hundred years ago. Scroll down to the contents for Volume 14 to link to major California groups. It was the Pomo on whose land the Kelseys lived in Sonoma and Clear Lake. The coast and lake Miwok lived near by. There are some excellent old images on these pages.

Support Duende


Donations are tax deductible and processed securely through PayPal.

ABOLITION

ABOLITION tells the story of two friends, Frederick Douglass and John Brown, during the tumultuous decade leading up to the Civil War. Produced as an acclaimed two-man stage play in Sonora and Sacramento, Duende is now in production of a broadcast quality film adaptation.

Learn more about the progress of the film version, as well as the historical background of the stage play.

Theater venues interested in presenting our production of ABOLITION should contact us to discuss the possibilities.

Don’t Miss Out!

Join our email newsletter and get advance info about special performances and events.

On the Blog

Tribute to Frederick Douglass

July 4, 2020 By Rick Foster

A Thumbnail View of Abolition

June 28, 2018 By Rick Foster

A Thumbnail Early Life of Frederick Douglass

June 28, 2018 By Rick Foster

info@DuendeDrama.org · 209.532.9177 · P.O. Box 5469, Sonora, CA 95370
Copyright © 1999–2023 Duende Drama & Literature · Website by Webdancers ·· Log in