VMHC Lectures

On December 3, 2015, Gregory D. Smithers delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Cherokee Diaspora: A History of Migration, Survival, and Pride."

According to the U.S. Census, almost one million Americans self-identify as Cherokees. Wherever one travels in the United States, someone is likely to lay claim to a Cherokee ancestor somewhere in their family tree. In fact, travel as far afield as Scotland, Hawaii, or even Australia, and chances are you will meet someone who insists that they are descended from Cherokee forebears. How can so many people, scattered all over the world, claim to be Cherokee? Historian Gregory D. Smithers addresses this question in his new book, The Cherokee Diaspora. He reveals for the first time the origins of the Cherokee Diaspora. Smithers takes the reader back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to uncover the importance of migration and removal, land and tradition, and culture and language in defining what it meant to be Cherokee while living in diaspora. The story of the Cherokee Diaspora is a remarkable tale of bravery, innovation, and resilience.

Gregory 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.

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 November 19 at noon, Gerald M. Pops will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "Champion of War, Champion of Peace: The Leadership of George C. Marshall." George Catlett Marshall, recognized early on as the U.S. Army’s most capable leader, overcame a number of obstacles to become Army Chief of Staff on the very day World War II began. He served as the de facto leader of America’s military until the end of the war and then went on to serve in China as President Truman’s ambassador and then as secretary of state, president of the American Red Cross, and secretary of defense. As the father of the European Recovery Act (appropriately labeled by Truman as the “Marshall Plan”), Marshall is credited with jump-starting western Europe’s postwar economic and political recovery and laying the foundation for long-term European-American relations. For this he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This lecture will focus primarily on his extraordinary leadership between September 1939 and December 1941 in preparing America for war. Gerald M. Pops is emeritus professor of public administration at West Virginia University. He is the author of several books, including Ethical Leadership in Turbulent Times: Modeling the Public Career of George C. Marshall.

On November 14 at 2 p.m., Mary Miley Theobald delivered a lecture entitled "Weird-but-True Things Most People Don't Know about the Roaring Twenties." Mary Miley Theobald thinks the Roaring Twenties is the most fascinating decade in American history. In this lecture, she touches on some of the surprising things she learned about vaudeville, prohibition, silent movies, and fashion while doing background research for her mystery series. Mary Miley Theobald is the author of several works of nonfiction, including Death by Petticoat: American History Myths Debunked and First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Families, and an award-winning mystery series set in the Roaring Twenties. Her novels include The Impersonator and Silent Murders.

On October 29 at noon, Larry Denton will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "Unionists in Virginia: Politics, Secession, and Their Plan to Prevent Civil War." Whether the Civil War was preventable is a debate that began shortly after Appomattox and continues today. But even earlier, in 1861, a group of Union-loyal Virginians—led by George Summers, John Brown Baldwin, John Janney, and Jubal Early—felt war was avoidable. In the statewide election for delegates to the Secession Convention that same spring, the Unionists defeated the Southern Rights Democrats with a huge majority of the votes across the state. These men unsuccessfully negotiated with Sec. of State William Henry Seward to prevent the national tragedy that would ensue. Author and historian Larry Denton traces this remarkable story of the Virginians who worked against all odds in a failed attempt to save a nation from going to war. Denton is the author of A Southern Star for Maryland: Maryland and the Secession Crisis; William Henry Seward and the Secession Crisis: The Effort to Prevent Civil War; and Unionists in Virginia: Politics, Secession and Their Plan to Prevent Civil War. He lectures widely throughout the mid-Atlantic. Now retired, he lives with his wife, Susan, near Oxford on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

On November 19, 2015, Gerald M. Pops will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "Champion of War, Champion of Peace: The Leadership of George C. Marshall."

George C. MarshallMore informationGeorge Catlett Marshall, recognized early on as the U.S. Army’s most capable leader, overcame a number of obstacles to become Army Chief of Staff on the very day World War II began. He served as the de facto leader of America’s military until the end of the war and then went on to serve in China as President Truman’s ambassador and then as secretary of state, president of the American Red Cross, and secretary of defense. As the father of the European Recovery Act (appropriately labeled by Truman as the “Marshall Plan”), Marshall is credited with jump-starting western Europe’s postwar economic and political recovery and laying the foundation for long-term European-American relations. For this he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This lecture will focus primarily on his extraordinary leadership between September 1939 and December 1941 in preparing America for war.

Gerald M. Pops is emeritus professor of public administration at West Virginia University. He is the author of several books, including Ethical Leadership in Turbulent Times: Modeling the Public Career of George C. Marshall.

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 November 14, 2015, Mary Miley Theobald delivered a lecture entitled "Weird-but-True Things Most People Don't Know about the Roaring Twenties."

Mary Miley Theobald thinks the Roaring Twenties is the most fascinating decade in American history. In this lecture, she touches on some of the surprising things she learned about vaudeville, prohibition, silent movies, and fashion while doing background research for her mystery series.

Mary Miley Theobald is the author of several works of nonfiction, including Death by Petticoat: American History Myths Debunked and First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Families, and an award-winning mystery series set in the Roaring Twenties. Her novels include The Impersonator and Silent Murders.

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 October 29, 2015, Larry Denton will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "Unionists in Virginia: Politics, Secession, and Their Plan to Prevent Civil War."

Unionists in Virginia: Politics, Secession, and Their Plan to Prevent Civil WarWhether the Civil War was preventable is a debate that began shortly after Appomattox and continues today. But even earlier, in 1861, a group of Union-loyal Virginians—led by George Summers, John Brown Baldwin, John Janney, and Jubal Early—felt war was avoidable. In the statewide election for delegates to the Secession Convention that same spring, the Unionists defeated the Southern Rights Democrats with a huge majority of the votes across the state. These men unsuccessfully negotiated with Sec. of State William Henry Seward to prevent the national tragedy that would ensue. Author and historian Larry Denton traces this remarkable story of the Virginians who worked against all odds in a failed attempt to save a nation from going to war.

Denton is the author of A Southern Star for Maryland: Maryland and the Secession Crisis; William Henry Seward and the Secession Crisis: The Effort to Prevent Civil War; and Unionists in Virginia: Politics, Secession and Their Plan to Prevent Civil War. He lectures widely throughout the mid-Atlantic. Now retired, he lives with his wife, Susan, near Oxford on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

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 October 8, 2015, Lynn Rainville delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “God’s Acre: Why African American Cemeteries Matter.”

In Hidden History, Lynn Rainville travels through the forgotten African American cemeteries of central Virginia to recover information crucial to the stories of the black families who lived and worked there for more than two hundred years. The subjects of Rainville’s research are not statesmen or plantation elites; they are hidden residents, people who are typically underrepresented in historical research but whose stories are essential for a complete understanding of our national past. Rainville studied above-ground funerary remains in more than 150 historic African American cemeteries in Virginia to provide an overview of mortuary and funerary practices from the late eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Combining historical, anthropological, and archaeological perspectives, she analyzes documents—such as wills, obituaries, and letters—as well as gravestones and graveside offerings. Rainville’s findings shed light on family genealogies, the rise and fall of segregation, and attitudes toward religion and death. As many of these cemeteries are either endangered or already destroyed, the book and this talk will include a discussion about the challenges of preservation and how Virginians may visit, and help preserve, these valuable cultural assets.

Lynn Rainville is a research professor in the humanities and the founding director of the Tusculum Institute for local history, located at Sweet Briar College. Her most recent book is Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia.

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 September 9 at noon, A. E. Dick Howard will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "Magna Carta: 800 Years since Runnymede." A. E. Dick HowardIn 2015 people on both sides of the Atlantic will mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. On June 15, 1215, at Runnymede, a reluctant King John agreed to the barons' terms in a document which came to be known as Magna Carta. Though the king never meant to keep his promises, Magna Carta survived. Down through the centuries, it has been a symbol of opposition to arbitrary government. Magna Carta came to America with the English colonies' first charters. In the years leading up to the Revolution, Americans framed their arguments against British policies by drawing upon the language of the early charters and upon Magna Carta as their birthright. Having declared independence, Americans turned to writing and implementing state constitutions and, ultimately, a Federal Constitution. Magna Carta left an indelible mark on these developments. At the core of this legacy is the rule of law—the thesis that no one, including those in government, is above the law. Another principle traceable to the Great Charter is constitutional supremacy—the idea of a superstatute against which ordinary laws are to be measured. Constitutional provisions guaranteeing due process of law derive directly from Magna Carta's assurance of proceedings according to the "law of the land." And the uses successive generations, in England and America, have made of the Charter have given us the idea of an organic, evolving Constitution, one that can be adapted to the needs and challenges of our own time. A. E. Dick Howard is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, he was a law clerk to Justice Hugo L. Black of the Supreme Court of the United States. A member of High Table at Christ Church, Oxford, Professor Howard has written extensively on constitutional law and history, including The Road from Runnymede: Magna Carta and Constitutionalism in America. Recently the University of Virginia conferred on him its Thomas Jefferson Award—the highest honor the University accords a member of the faculty

On September 3 at noon, Barclay Rives delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “William Cabell Rives: A Country to Serve.” Defying the president and Democratic Party leaders in an 1838 Senate speech, William Cabell Rives declared, “I can never forget that I have a country to serve as well as a party to obey.” His career of public service began under the tutelage of his neighbors, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and extended beyond the Civil War he struggled to prevent. Rives was the third president of the Virginia Historical Society (1847–68), biographer of Madison, and editor of a four volume edition of Madison’s papers. Barclay Rives will discuss highlights of the life of this Virginia statesman, historian, and agriculturalist. Barclay Rives has published articles and stories in Virginia Sportsman, In & Around Horse Country, Albemarle Magazine, and other periodicals. He is the author of A History of Grace Church, The 100 Year History of the Keswick Hunt Club, William Cabell Rives: A Country to Serve, and See You at Second Horses.