VMHC Lectures

On July 10, Kitty Snow delivererd a Banner Lecture entitled "From a Richmond Streetcar: Life through the Lens of Harris Stilson." Streetcar motorman Harris Stilson spent countless hours using his camera to capture Richmond and its everyday citizens nearly 100 years ago, giving us a priceless look at the city’s many slices of life. This lecture, presented by Kitty Snow, Harry’s great-granddaughter, will reveal the city’s past as told through Harry’s prolific images and her thoughtful narration.

On June 26, 2014, Heath Hardage Lee delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause."

Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis was the youngest daughter of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his second wife, Varina Howell Davis. Winnie’s birth in June 1864 was hailed as a blessing by war-weary southerners. Her arrival seemed a good omen that might signify future victory. After the war, Winnie, who spent her early life as a genteel refugee and a European expatriate, was christened the “Daughter of the Confederacy” in 1886. This role was bestowed upon her by a southern society trying to come to terms with defeat. Particularly idolized by such organizations as the United Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Winnie became an icon of the Lost Cause, eclipsing even her father in popularity. Her controversial engagement in 1890 to a northern lawyer, whose grandfather was a famous abolitionist, shocked her friends, family, and the southern groups that idolized her. She later moved to New York City, where she became a writer for family friend and newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer at The World. Despite her blooming literary career, the young woman was unable to escape the looming legacy of the Lost Cause. Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause is the first published biography of this little-known woman who unwittingly became the symbolic female figure of the defeated South.

Heath Hardage Lee, author of Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause, is the History Series Coordinator at Salisbury House and Gardens in Des Moines, Iowa. She is a writer whose work has appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Charlotte Magazine, Charlotte Home Design, Charlotte Place, and Charlotte Business, and she regularly contributes to several blogs on history, art, and design.

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 June 12, 2014, Kevin P. Duffus delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "War Zone: World War II off the North Carolina Coast."

For seven months in 1942, black smoke and orange flames from torpedoed vessels filled the ocean skies off the coast of North Carolina. Explosions rattled window panes and the nerves of coastal residents. Beaches were awash with wreckage, oil, empty lifeboats, and bodies. War Zone follows the accounts of three climactic engagements between U.S. forces and German U-boats off North Carolina’s coast when the battle of the Atlantic hung in the balance. This story is told from the perspective of everyday people who faced daunting challenges with perseverance, patriotism, and uncommon valor.

Kevin Duffus, a researcher and filmmaker, is the author of several books, including Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks: An Illustrated Guide, The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate, and War Zone: World War II off the North Carolina Coast.

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 June 5, Elizabeth Varon delivered the Hazel and Fulton Chauncey Lecture entitled "Lee at Appomattox." Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House evokes a highly gratifying image in the popular mind—it was, many believe, a moment that transcended politics, a moment of healing, a moment of patriotism untainted by ideology. But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in her latest book, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. In Appomattox, she deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered—but not well understood—moment when the Civil War ended. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country—and of the meaning of the war that had changed the country forever.

On june 5, 2014, Elizabeth R. Varon delivered the banner lecture "Lee at Appomattox"

Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House evokes a highly gratifying image in the popular mind—it was, many believe, a moment that transcended politics, a moment of healing, a moment of patriotism untainted by ideology. But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in her latest book, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. In Appomattox, she deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered—but not well understood—moment when the Civil War ended. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country—and of the meaning of the war that had changed the country forever.

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 May 22, 2014, Andrew O’Shaughnessy delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire."

The loss of America was an unexpected defeat for the British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders must have been to blame. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. British victories were frequent throughout the war. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort.

Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and professor of history at the University of Virginia, is the author of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, winner of the 2014 George Washington Book Prize.

Purchase a copy of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire.

This lecture is cosponsored with the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of 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 May 7, Gary W. Gallagher delivered a special evening Banner Lecture entitled "The Spring of 1864: A Season of Hope in the United States and the Confederacy." Many people consider the summer of 1863 to be the Civil War's great turning point, after which the Confederacy stood no chance of achieving independence. In fact, citizens in both the United States and the Confederacy entered the spring of 1864 with hopes for a favorable outcome of the war. This lecture will assess opinion inside and outside the armies as the campaigning season approached in April, highlighting the importance of U. S. Grant and R. E. Lee to expectations in their respective nations. It will also underscore the importance of engaging contemporary evidence, rather than retrospective accounts, if we are to understand historical events. Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia and the author of many books and articles, including Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty (2013).

On May 7, 2014, Gary W. Gallagher delivered a special evening Banner Lecture entitled "The Spring of 1864: A Season of Hope in the United States and the Confederacy."

Many people consider the summer of 1863 to be the Civil War's great turning point, after which the Confederacy stood no chance of achieving independence. In fact, citizens in both the United States and the Confederacy entered the spring of 1864 with hopes for a favorable outcome of the war. This lecture will assess opinion inside and outside the armies as the campaigning season approached in April, highlighting the importance of U. S. Grant and R. E. Lee to expectations in their respective nations. It will also underscore the importance of engaging contemporary evidence, rather than retrospective accounts, if we are to understand historical events.

Gary W. Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia and the author of many books and articles, including Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty (2013).

This lecture is cosponsored with the Richmond National Battlefield Park.

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 16, 2014, Mitchell Zuckoff delivered the 2014 Stuart G. Christian, Jr., Lecture entitled "Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II."

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, 2014 Alan Taylor delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832."

In 1813, British warships appeared in the Chesapeake Bay to punish Americans for declaring war on the empire. Over many nights, hundreds of slaves paddled out to the vessels seeking protection for their families from the ravages of slavery. The runaways pressured the British into becoming liberators. As guides, pilots, sailors, and marines, the former slaves used their intimate knowledge of the countryside to transform the war. Tidewater masters had long dreaded their slaves as "an internal enemy." By mobilizing that enemy, the war ignited the deepest fears of Chesapeake slaveholders. It also alienated Virginians from a national government that had neglected their defense.

Alan Taylor is the Distinguished Professor in History at the University of California, Davis, and the author of The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772–1832.

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