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Reservations are not required. Admission is $6/adults, $5/seniors, $4/children and students, free/members (please present card) and to Richmond Times-Dispatch readers with a Press Pass coupon. Parking is free.
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Don't miss these upcoming lectures: |
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When the Sun Stood Still: Reflections on the Reverend John Jasper
Thursday, February 23 (noon)
By Samuel K. Roberts
Banner Lecture Series
Among the larger than life personages in Richmond during the latter years of the nineteenth century is to be counted the pastor of Jackson Ward’s Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, the Rev. John Jasper. He was born a slave in the second decade of the century, and his mark on Richmond's popular consciousness lasts even to the present. In large measure, this is because of a sermon he first preached in 1878, "The Sun Do Move and the Earth Am Square." Hailed by some and vilified by others, Jasper's sermon seemed to defy modern notions of astronomy. Yet, he was asked to preach it more than 250 times, including before the General Assembly, before his death in 1901. Reflections on this enigmatic character will explore the context in which his audiences heard him, as well as that of our own. Samuel K. Roberts is the Anne Borden and E. Hervey Evans Professor of Theology and Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary. This lecture is cosponsored with Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church.
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American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America
Thursday, March 15 (noon)
By David O. Stewart
Banner Lecture Series
A canny and charismatic politician who rose to become third vice president of the new United States, Aaron Burr seemed to throw it all away in 1805 and 1806 in an extraordinary attempt to lead a secession of the American West. American Emperor by acclaimed author David O. Stewart traces Burr from the threshold of the presidency in the contested election of 1800, through his duel with Alexander Hamilton, and then across the American West as he schemed with foreign ambassadors, the traitorous general-in-chief of the army, and future presidents, including Andrew Jackson. His immense ambition was matched by his undisguised contempt for Thomas Jefferson, a president he thought ineffective and unwise. The indecisive Jefferson finally had Burr arrested and charged with treason. Burr led his own legal defense in an historic treason trial in Richmond before Chief Justice John Marshall, winning an acquittal and freedom. Mr. Stewart is an attorney who practices law in Washington, D.C.
Order your copy of American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America |
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Before It Was Virginia: Setting the Stage
Friday, March 16 (noon)
By Helen C. Rountree
Banner Lecture Series
When English settlers arrived here 400 years ago, they encountered the first Virginians, the most famous of whom are the subjects of Helen C. Rountree's book, Pocahontas, Powhatan, and Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Today's presentation is the keynote address of "From the Earth: The Environment in Virginia's Past and Future," a free day-long conference on the historical relationship between Virginia's environment and its people. The conference is made possible by a generous grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment. Dr. Rountree is professor emerita of anthropology at Old Dominion University. She now concentrates full time on writing and speaking about early Virginia Indians, as well as consulting with the Virginia Council on Indians and on tribal recognition.
Order your copy of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown |
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Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519–1871
Wednesday, March 28 (noon)
By Jeremy Black
Banner Lecture Series
In his latest book, prize-winning author Jeremy Black traces the competition for control of North America from the landing in 1519 of Spanish troops in what became Mexico to 1871 when, with the Treaty of Washington, Britain accepted American mastery in North America. The story Black tells is one of conflict, diplomacy, and geopolitics. The eventual result was the creation of a United States of America that stretched from Atlantic to Pacific and dominated the continent. The gradual withdrawal of France and Spain, the British accommodation to the expanding U.S. reality, the impact of the American Civil War, and the subjugation of native peoples are all carefully drawn out. Jeremy Black teaches history at Exeter University in the United Kingdom. This lecture is cosponsored with the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Virginia.
Order your copy of Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519–1871 |
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Brown's Battleground in Prince Edward County, Virginia
Thursday, April 12 (noon)
By Jill Titus
Banner Lecture Series
When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Prince Edward County abolished its public school system rather than integrate. In her new book, Brown's Battleground: Students, Segregationists, and the Struggle for Justice in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Jill Titus situates the crisis in Prince Edward County within the seismic changes brought by Brown and Virginia's decision to resist desegregation. She reveals the ways that ordinary people, black and white, battled, and continue to battle, over the role of public education in the United States. Dr. Titus is associate director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. |
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Lost Communities of Virginia
Thursday, May 3 (noon)
By Terri Fisher
Banner Lecture Series
Virginia's back roads and rural areas are dotted with traces of once-thriving communities. General stores, train depots, schools, churches, banks, and post offices provide intriguing details of a way of life now gone. Lost Communities of Virginia documents thirty small communities from throughout the commonwealth that have lost their original industry, transportation mode, or way of life. Using contemporary photographs, maps, and excerpts of interviews with longtime residents of these communities, the book documents the present conditions, recalls past boom times, and explains the role of each community in regional settlement. Terri Fisher is outreach and programs coordinator at the Community Design Assistance Center at Virginia Tech and executive director of the Giles County Historical Society. |
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The U.S. Marines at Belleau Wood, June 1918
Thursday, June 14 (noon)
By Patrick Mooney
Banner Lecture Series
In 1917 the German Empire won its war on the Eastern Front by imposing humiliating terms on Russia. It then mounted a giant spring offensive on the Western Front in 1918 to crush the weakened Allied armies. U.S. Marines of the American Expeditionary Force helped blunt the German thrust and turn the tide. The pivotal action took place in June at the battle of Belleau Wood, the bloodiest fighting involving American troops since the Civil War. Patrick Mooney will describe this dramatic chapter in Marine Corps history and America's participation in World War I. Mr. Mooney is visitor services chief at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. |
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The Civil War at a Crossroads: The Seven Days
Tuesday, June 19 (5:30 pm)
By Edward L. Ayers
Banner Lecture Series
In the spring of 1862, Virginia's civilians faced a different kind of war than they had the year before. Advancing Union armies now occupied large amounts of territory in western Virginia and in Tidewater, and their presence had a dramatic effect on local populations. Pro-Confederate white Virginians became refugees as they left their homes, and enslaved Virginians began to flee to the safety of Union lines. Edward L. Ayers will analyze the impact of the Civil War on Virginia's civilians up through the first half of 1862. He is president of the University of Richmond and the author of In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859–1863. This lecture is cosponsored with the Richmond National Battlefield Park and The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar. |
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John Randolph of Roanoke
Thursday, June 28 (noon)
By David Johnson
Banner Lecture Series
One of the most eccentric and accomplished politicians in all of American history, John Randolph of Roanoke led a life marked by controversy. The long-serving Virginia congressman and architect of southern conservatism grabbed headlines with his prescient comments, public brawls, and clashes with every president from John Adams to Andrew Jackson. The first biography of Randolph in nearly a century, John Randolph of Roanoke provides a full account of the powerful Virginia planter's hardcharging life and his influence on the formation of conservative politics. John Randolph of Roanoke tells the story of a young nation and the unique philosophy of a southern lawmaker who defended America’s agrarian tradition and reveled in his own controversy. David Johnson is deputy attorney general for the state of Virginia and the author of a biography of Douglas Southall Freeman. |
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More Important Than Gettysburg: The Seven Days Campaign as a Turning Point
Wednesday, July 11 (5:30 pm)
By Gary W. Gallagher
Banner Lecture Series
Ever since the Civil War ended, it has been a popular pastime to look for dramatic turning points in that conflict. For many, the battle of Gettysburg represents the great event that tipped the balance toward the North. Key political, diplomatic, social, and military issues, however, were at stake in the summer of 1862 as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan faced off in the Seven Days Battles. Gary W. Gallagher argues that Lee's victory had a profound effect on the conflict and that perhaps the series of battles waged on the Virginia Peninsula should be regarded as a major turning point of the war. Dr. Gallagher is a professor of history at the University of Virginia. His most recent book is The Union War. This lecture is cosponsored with the Richmond National Battlefield Park and The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar. |
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The Queen and the USA: Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee in America
Thursday, July 26 (noon)
By H. Edward Mann
Banner Lecture Series
Although the United States was born out of revolution against Great Britain, Americans have warmly greeted the reigning British monarch on each of her visits to this country. Queen Elizabeth II has made three state visits to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Each has rekindled appreciation of the common bonds between the United Kingdom and the United States: the rule of law, representative government, and economic freedom. The Queen and the USA was published to celebrate those ties on the occasion of Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee. With illustrations from his new book, H. Edward "Chip" Mann will describe the queen's special relationship with Virginia and all of America on the anniversary of her sixty years as queen of England. |
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Edward Coles: Crusade Against Slavery
Thursday, August 2 (noon)
By Bruce G. Carveth
Banner Lecture Series
Edward Coles was a wealthy heir to a central Virginia plantation who left his family's Virginia tobacco plantation in 1819 and started the long trip west to Edwardsville, Illinois. He paused along the Ohio River on an emotional April morning to free his slaves and offer each family 160 acres of Illinois land of their own. Some continued to work for Coles, while others were left to find work for themselves. Coles later became the second governor of Illinois, the loyal personal secretary to President James Madison, and a close antislavery associate of Thomas Jefferson. In Crusade Against Slavery, Bruce G. Carveth and his coauthor detail Coles’s remarkable life story and his role in the struggle to free all slaves. Carveth is an independent writer and former editor. |
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