The Case of Charity Lamb (2018)
Arts and Humanities in Action, or AHA!, was originally envisioned as a three-year program to establish an interdisciplinary program of activities to increase the number of students actively engaged in arts and humanities learning activities while at Linfield College and to connect the values learned and skills developed from these activities to their future careers. Continuing the theme from its inaugural year, AHA! considered the case of Charity Lamb, who was the first convicted female murderer in the newly established Oregon Territory. Students considered the case from a number of disciplinary perspectives: history, creative writing, music, philosophy, and visual arts. As part of the experience, students produced their own creative works on the theme and presented their work on the final day of the pre-orientation week.
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The Lessons of Charity Lamb
Melia Hannigan-Luther
This poem inspired by the case of Charity Lamb is stylistically based on Jamaica Kincaid’s poem “Girl.”
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Charity Lamb
Kristen Huth and Jordan Keller
This original song imagines a message from Charity Lamb to her children. As Charity slowly loses her mind to a life of trauma and imprisonment, she tries to hold on to the memory of her children, asking for their forgiveness but also yearning for a life and relationship with them that can never be restored. In doing so, Charity's act of murder becomes the complicated and desperate pursuit of freedom for her children and herself.
