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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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Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South
Thursday, May 16 (noon)
By Stephanie Deutsch
Banner Lecture Series
Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute, and Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, first met in 1911. By charting the lives of these two men both before and after the meeting, Stephanie Deutsch offers a fascinating glimpse into the partnership that would bring thousands of modern schoolhouses to African American communities in the rural South. By the time segregation ended, the "Rosenwald Schools" that sprang from this unlikely partnership were educating one third of the South’s African American children. Deutsch, a writer and critic living in Washington, D.C., is the author of You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South. Purchase You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South |
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Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Secession, Civil War
Thursday, June 13 (noon)
By David C. Keehn
Banner Lecture Series
The Knights of the Golden Circle was a mysterious southern-based society that set out in 1859 to establish a slave empire in Mexico. In late 1860, it shifted its focus to supporting the secession movement and intimidating Unionists in the South. According to David Keehn, once the war began, the Knights helped build up the nascent Confederate army and carried out various clandestine actions, including an attempt to assassinate Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in 1861. Keehn, an attorney from Allentown, Pa., is the author of Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War. |
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Richmond at War, 1863
Tuesday, July 2 (5:30 pm)
By Gary W. Gallagher and Robert E. L. Krick
The Civil War entered its third spring in 1863. Behind the lines in the United States, emancipation, conscription, and military reverses fueled bitter political strife. In the Confederacy, euphoria from Robert E. Lee's victory at Chancellorsville in May ended abruptly with defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July. Massive casualties, inflation, material shortages, and social unrest plagued both of the warring sections. What did the events of 1863 mean for Americans, and for the Old Dominion? And how did they affect the capital city of Richmond and its swelling population? Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War. Robert E. L. Krick is a historian at Richmond National Battlefield Park. This lecture is cosponsored with the Richmond National Battlefield Park and is free and open to the public; no reservations. |
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The Jefferson Hotel: The History of a Richmond Landmark
Thursday, July 11 (noon)
By Paul N. Herbert
Banner Lecture Series
Designed by Richmond visionary Lewis Ginter, the Jefferson Hotel has been an icon in the community since 1895. From the alligators that used to roam the elegant lobby to the speakeasy housed within during Prohibition, the hotel has a fascinating and unparalleled history. Playing host to cultural icons like Charles Lindbergh and F. Scott Fitzgerald and surviving the Great Depression and catastrophic fires, the hotel has remained an important landmark throughout Richmond's history. Join Paul Herbert as he recounts stories of heiresses, actors, musicians, and celebrities who have stayed within its treasured walls. Mr. Herbert is a local historian who has loved the Jefferson since his first visit there more than twenty years ago. |
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Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia
Thursday, July 25 (noon)
By Brian D. McKnight
Banner Lecture Series
During the four years of the Civil War, the border between eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia was highly contested territory, alternately occupied by both the Confederacy and the Union. In Contested Borderland, Brian McKnight examines the features of the region's geography and the influence of the attacks on borderlands caught in the crossfire of opposing forces. He reveals how the dual occupation of the Union and Confederate armies divided the borderland population, creating hostilities within the region that would persist long after the war's conclusion. Professor McKnight teaches history at the University of Virginia's College at Wise. This lecture is cosponsored with the Museum of the Confederacy. No reservations; free to VHS and MOC members. |
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Ocracoke: The Pearl of the Outer Banks
Thursday, August 8 (noon)
By Ray McAllister
Banner Lecture Series
The Outer Banks have enticed Virginians with the lure of sun, sky, and sea for generations. Despite this idyllic appeal, these once-isolated barrier islands have also witnessed a turbulent past. Pirates, hurricanes, shipwrecks, and U-boats all make their appearance in the varied story of the Outer Banks. Ray McAllister, an award-winning former Richmond Times Dispatch columnist, has become the established chronicler of coastal North Carolina with his latest volume on Ocracoke, which follows earlier books on Hatteras Island, Wrightsville Beach, and Topsail Island. |
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Fighting for Freedom: African Americans and the War of 1812
Wednesday, September 4 (noon)
By Gene Allen Smith
Banner Lecture Series
Images of American slavery conjure up cotton plantations and African Americans locked in bondage until the Civil War. Yet early in the nineteenth century the state of slavery was very different, and the political vicissitudes of the young nation offered diverse possibilities to slaves. Though surprising numbers of slaves did assist the Americans in the War of 1812, the conflict created opportunities for slaves to find freedom among the British. The Slaves' Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 by Gene Smith offers a fascinating and original narrative history of an extraordinary yet little-known chapter in the dark saga of American history. Smith is professor of history and the director of the Center for Texas Studies at Texas Christian University. This lecture is cosponsored with the War of 1812 Commission. |
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First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Families
Thursday, October 10 (noon)
By Mary Miley Theobald
Banner Lecture Series
Conceived during the Revolutionary War, built during the War of 1812, and looted during the Civil War, Virginia's executive mansion has endured fires, threats, riots, and hurricanes. Written to coincide with the mansion's bicentennial in 2013, First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Family by Mary Miley Theobald brings to life the private stories of the governors and their families who shaped the destiny of this unique home. The book traces triumph and tragedy through the turbulence of wars, fires, economic depressions, and renovations in a story that mirrors Virginia's progress from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first. Mary Theobald, an independent historian and author of several books, taught American history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. |
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Family of Assassins: The Surratts of Maryland
Thursday, October 31 (noon)
By David O. Stewart
Banner Lecture Series
Everyone knows about John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. But what about Mary Surratt, the boardinghouse keeper who "kept the nest that hatched the egg" of assassination and was the first woman executed by the United States government? Or her son John, a Confederate courier and boon companion to Booth, who fled through Canada and Britain to Vatican City, ending up as a Papal Zouave until he was chased across the Mediterranean and hauled back to face a Washington, D.C., jury that deadlocked and set him free? David O. Stewart, author of several works of American history, will trace the authentic checkered career of this notorious family, who also feature prominently in his first historical novel, The Lincoln Deception, which explores unanswered questions about the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. |
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