VMHC Lectures

On May 9, 2019, Gregory D. Smithers delivered the Banner Lecture, “Native Southerners: The Indigenous People Who Made and Remade the South.”

Long before the indigenous people of southeastern North America encountered Europeans and Africans, they established communities with clear social and political hierarchies and rich cultural traditions. Historian Gregory D. Smithers brings the world of Native southerners to life in this sweeping narrative of American Indian history in the Southeast from the time before European colonialism to the Trail of Tears and beyond. Spanning territory reaching from modern-day Louisiana and Arkansas to the Atlantic coast, Native Southerners focuses on the stories of the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, as well as smaller Native communities like the Nottoways, Occaneechis, Haliwa-Saponis, Catawbas, and Caddos. In Native Southerners, Smithers constructs a vibrant history of the societies, cultures, and people that made and remade the Native South.

Dr. Gregory D. Smithers, an associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializes in Native American history. He is the author of The Cherokee Diaspora: An Indigenous History of Migration, Resettlement, and Identity and Native Southerners: Indigenous History from Origins to Removal.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On April 17, 2019, Douglas Brinkley delivered the 2019 Stuart G. Christian, Jr. Lecture, “American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race.”

On May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University, the CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Audubon. His book Cronkite won the Sperber Prize for Best Book in Journalism and was a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He is the author of numerous books, including The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America; Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America; and American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On April 25, 2019, Aaron Sheehan-Dean delivered the Banner Lecture,“The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War.”

At least three-quarters of a million lives were lost during the American Civil War. Given its seemingly in­discriminate mass destruction, this conflict is often thought of as the first “total war.” Aaron Sheehan-Dean's latest books, The Calculus of Violence, demonstrates that this notoriously bloody war could have been much worse. Military forces on both sides sought to contain casualties inflicted on soldiers and civilians. In congress, in church pews, and in letters home, Americans debated the conditions under which lethal violence was legitimate, and their arguments differentiated carefully among victims—women and men, black and white, enslaved and free. Sometimes, these well-meaning restraints led to more carnage by implicit­ly justifying the killing of people who were not protected by the laws of war. As the Civil War raged on, the Union’s confrontations with guerrillas and the Confederacy’s confrontations with black soldiers forced a new reckoning with traditional categories of lawful combat­ants and raised legal disputes that still hang over military operations around the world today.

Aaron Sheehan-Dean is the Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies at Louisiana State University and the chairman of the History Department. He teaches courses on nineteenth-century U.S. history, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and southern history. He is the author of Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia and Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War and the editor of several books. His latest book is The Calculus of Violence: How Americans Fought the Civil War.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On April 5, 2019, Heath Hardage Lee delivered the Banner Lecture, “The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam.”

On February 12, 1973, one hundred and fifteen men who, just six years earlier, had been high flying Navy and Air Force pilots, shuffled, limped, or were carried off a huge military transport plane at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. These American servicemen had endured years of brutal torture, shackled and starved in solitary confinement, in rat-infested, mosquito-laden prisons, the worst of which was The Hanoi Hilton. Months later, this first group of Vietnam POWs to return home would learn that their rescuers were their wives, a group of women led by Sybil Stockdale and including Jane Denton, Louise Mulligan, Andrea Rander, Phyllis Galanti, and Helene Knapp. The POW-MIA advocacy group Sybil and her “League of Wives” created, The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, went to extraordinary lengths to facilitate their husbands’ freedom—and to account for missing military men. The women relentlessly lobbied government leaders, conducted savvy media campaigns, met reluctantly with antiwar activists, and attempted to negotiate with the North Vietnamese. Most astonishingly, many of these women helped to code secret letters to their imprisoned husbands. Heath Hardage Lee tells the story of these remarkable women for the first time in The League of Wives, drawing on first person interviews, diaries, letters, oral histories, and government and archival records to tell this story of courage, resilience, and rescue.

Heath Hardage Lee comes from a museum education and curatorial background, and she has worked at history museums across the country. She holds a B.A. in history with honors from Davidson College, and an M.A. in French Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. Heath served as the 2017 Robert J. Dole Curatorial Fellow. Her exhibition, The League of Wives: Vietnam POW/MIA Advocates & Allies, premiered at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics in May of 2017 and will be on display at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in March of 2019. She is the author of Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause, winner of the 2015 Colonial Dames of America Annual Book Award as well as a 2015 Gold Medal for Nonfiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam.

This lecture is cosponsored by The Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair and the Virginia Antiquarian Booksellers Association (VABA).

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On March 26, 2019, Gregory May delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt.”

The fight over how to pay for government has always been at the heart of American politics. Thomas Jefferson’s champion in that fight was Albert Gallatin. And in the great struggle against Alexander Hamilton’s financial policies, Gallatin won. Gregory May’s new biography of Gallatin explains why he, more than Hamilton, was America’s financial founder. Gallatin first came to national attention as a rebel spokesman in the Whiskey Rebellion. Despite Hamilton’s attempts to destroy him, Gallatin soon became the leader of the Republican opposition in Congress. And once the Republicans elected Jefferson as president, Gallatin took charge of the Treasury—the largest and most powerful department of government. By the time Gallatin left office, he had abolished internal revenue taxes, slashed federal spending, and repaid half of the national debt. The Jefferson administration’s enduring achievement was to constrain the federal government by restraining its fiscal power. That was Gallatin’s work. His Treasury system lasted until the Civil War, and his culture of fiscal responsibility survived well into the twentieth century.

Gregory May is an internationally known tax expert who brings a fresh perspective to American financial history. He graduated from William & Mary with highest honors in history and from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After clerking for Justice Powell on the Supreme Court, he practiced law in Washington, D.C., and New York for more than thirty years. He is the author of "Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt."

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On March 14, 2019, Nancy E. Sheppard delivered the Banner Lecture, “Hampton Roads Murder and Mayhem: The Darker Side of the Tidewater.”

Join two-time, award-nominated author and historian, Nancy Sheppard, as she discusses some of the darker tales from southeastern Virginia.

Dive into true stories of:

survival cannibalism at Jamestowne

the bravery of Grace Sherwood, known as “The Witch of Pungo”

stories of riots, murders, lynchings,

and Charles Lindbergh’s visit to Hampton Roads to find his son.

Come and experience some of the more nefarious moments in the vibrant history of Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Nancy E. Sheppard, a writer and historian of her native Hampton Roads, Virginia, is the author of The Airship ROMA Disaster in Hampton Roads and Hampton Roads Murder: & Mayhem.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

The formation of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia is a national story with strong ties to Virginia. Fueled by their shared frustration about the United States government’s silence regarding prisoners of war held by the North Vietnamese, Phyllis Galanti, Louise Mulligan, and Jane Denton—all wives of American POWs living in Virginia—began organizing under the auspices of the National League and its founder, Sybil Stockdale. They joined the efforts of other POW wives from other states-like Andrea Rander in Maryland and Marty Halyburton in Georgia, to break the silence and demand that the government account for their husbands and secure their return.

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, "The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Advocates & Allies," this panel discussion held on March 1, 2019 features a rare opportunity to understand the efforts of the National League by women who led it and how they, and their allies, captured national attention and united a deeply divided country behind bringing our prisoners home and by demanding an accounting for American servicemen missing in action.

Moderator: Audrey McKanna Coleman, Senior Archivist and Assistant Director of the Dole Institute of Politics

Panelists:

Heath Hardage Lee, exhibit curator and author of The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam

Andrea Rander, founding board member of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia

Marty Halyburton, Southeast Regional Coordinator and National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia board member

Learn more about the exhibition, "The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Advocates & Allies," at VirginiaHistory.org/LeagueofWives.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On February 28, 2019, Elizabeth L. O’Leary delivered the Banner Lecture, “Across Time: Robinson House, Its Land and People.”

What is that building? Just a short stroll from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture stands a tall antebellum structure with a soaring pyramidal belvedere. Robinson House, built about 1828 and expanded in the nineteenth century (and again just last year), is scheduled to open to the public in late January 2019. Owned by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, this intriguing structure was recently renovated and expanded to house a new regional tourism center and an exhibition about its rich and complex history. Project curator and author, Elizabeth O’Leary, will share the multilayered story of Robinson House, its land and inhabitants—including native peoples and English colonists; an elite antebellum family and the enslaved people who labored for and sometimes escaped them; the nation’s best-known Confederate veterans’ home, formed from a spirit of reconciliation between North and South; the establishment of “Battle Abbey” and other significant institutions; an innovative scientific research institute; and the commonwealth’s flagship art museum.

An art historian who resides in Richmond, Dr. O’Leary is a former associate curator of American art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She was lead author of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, written with curatorial colleagues. Her other books include From Morning to Night: Domestic Service in Maymont House and the Gilded Age South; At Beck and Call: The Representation of Domestic Servants in Nineteenth-Century American Painting; and the companion to the Robinson house exhibition, opening in late January 2019, Across Time: The History of the Grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

This program is presented in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

On February 21, 2019, Peter S. Carmichael delivered the Banner Lecture, “Tracking Down a Confederate Deserter after Gettysburg.”

On August 20, 1863, thirteen veteran soldiers from the 3rd North Carolina Infantry decided that they'd had enough of war. That evening, in the blackness of night, they picked up their rifles, slung on their cartridge belts, and escaped into the woods. From that point on there was no turning back. Our guest speaker, Professor Peter S. Carmichael, will focus on the words of John Futch, one of the thirteen deserters. Though he was illiterate, Futch left a remarkable set of letters that he dictated to his comrades. Futch’s powerful story puts us in the shoes of a deserter, enabling us to see his world after the devastating defeat in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Carmichael, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the American Civil War, is the Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies and the director of the Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College. He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles and several books, including Lee's Young Artillerist: William R. J. Pegram; The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion; and The War for the Common Soldier: How Men Thought, Fought, and Survived in Civil War Armies.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Over the past decade, Richmond has seen an explosion of public artwork. Artist, muralist, and writer Mickael Broth has documented this phenomenon in his new book, Murals of Richmond. In this special edition banner lecture, held on January 10, 2019, Broth moderates a lively panel discussion about the transformative power of public art with Christina Wing Chow, Hamilton Glass, Andre Shank, and Ed Trask, who are among Richmond’s most talented mural artists.

Mickael Broth, also known as The Night Owl, has painted over two hundred public murals throughout Richmond, the United States and Europe since 2012. He was awarded a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship in 2008 for his gallery work and has shown widely around the United States. Broth serves on the board of directors for the RVA Street Art Festival and has been instrumental in the curatorial direction of the organization since its formation in 2012. In 2013, he published Gated Community: Graffiti and Incarceration, a memoir detailing his experiences with vandalism and jail. In 2017, he was awarded a commission by the City of Richmond for the creation of an 18-foot tall welded aluminum sculpture that will be installed in front of the Hull Street Library in Richmond’s Manchester neighborhood.

The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.