VMHC Lectures

On Thursday October 7, 2010, Gerald P. McCarthy discussed the Virginia Environmental Endowment. Since its inception in 1977, Virginia Environmental Endowment has had a profound influence throughout the Old Dominion. This lecture focused on the origins, mission, and accomplishments of VEE. Gerald P. McCarthy examined the effects of the endowment's grants on Virginia's environment and the people who have helped to make those results possible. Sometimes described as "venture capital for environmental improvement in Virginia," VEE has played a unique role in the development of environmental research, education, and civic engagement. This lecture addressed each of these aspects of its work and the strategic approach to grant making that has made VEE a leader within the foundation world. Mr. McCarthy is executive director of Virginia Environmental Endowment. (Introduction by Paul A. Levengood)

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 28, 2010, Marie Tyler-McGraw discussed her book An African Republic: Black and White Virginians in the Making of Liberia. The West African nation Liberia arose from the aspirations of the American Colonization Society, which attempted to persuade free blacks to emigrate from the United States to that colony. Ultimately, the colonization scheme failed, but Liberia endured. No state was more involved with the project than Virginia. Virginians figured prominently among both leaders of the ACS and among settlers building a new life in Africa. Though their paths rarely intersected, these black and white Virginians played key roles in founding Liberia. In this presentation based on her latest book, Marie Tyler-McGraw told this compelling story of hope and misunderstanding, race and freedom. Also the author of a history of Richmond, Dr. Tyler-McGraw is an independent scholar and public historian. The lecture was co-sponsored by The Richmond Forum in conjunction with its November 6, 2010 program, featuring President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.

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

Thomas Jefferson returned to Monticello in 1809 at the end of his second presidential term and died there seventeen years later. In his new book, Alan Pell Crawford reveals the private Jefferson at home, coping with debt and illness, mediating family quarrels, and navigating public disputes, still a towering figure in the early republic. Mr. Crawford's previous book on a Virginia subject was Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman—and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America.

(Introduction by Paul A. Levengood)

In the winter of 1860–61, the crisis that erupted with the election of Abraham Lincoln threatened to split the nation. In his newest Lincoln book, Lincoln: President-Elect, Harold Holzer examines the perilous interregnum before the president-elect's inauguration and recounts Lincoln's public and private struggle to preserve the Union. Mr. Holzer is co-chairman of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and senior vice president for external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

(Introduction by Paul A. Levengood)

Daniel P. Jordan recently retired as president of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, one of the most beloved historic sites in America. No other historian today has immersed himself more deeply into the multifaceted life of our third president. Drawing on his many years at Monticello, Dr. Jordan reflected on the meaning of Thomas Jefferson within the broader context of his times and his enduring legacy for us today.

(Introduction by Paul A. Levengood)

On February 18, 2010, Robert Poole delivered a lecture on his book On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery. In his new book, Robert Poole traces the founding of Arlington Cemetery on what had been the family plantation of Robert E. Lee's wife. Arlington first became a U.S. Army headquarters and then a cemetery for indigent Civil War soldiers before Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton made it the new national cemetery. Arlington's special significance grew after the war, as the government gathered soldiers' remains hastily buried on nearby battlefields and reinterred them at Arlington, where they received the honors of a grateful nation. The rituals and reverence associated with Arlington evolved over the next hundred years, paid through the blood of those who fought in the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

(Introduction by Paul A. Levengood)

On February 6, 2014, Margaret Edds delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Letters of Oliver and Bernie Hill: The Making of a Legendary Civil Rights Lawyer."

Author-journalist Margaret Edds discusses more than 200 letters written during the first years of the Hills’ marriage, while Oliver was struggling to launch a law practice in Roanoke and Bernie was teaching in Washington D.C. The 1934–36 letters illuminate Hill’s early association with the N.A.A.C.P. and the Virginia Teachers Association, work that led in future years to participation in historic court challenges to Jim Crow segregation.

Margaret Edds is an author and retired journalist who is researching a book on Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson.

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 10, 2010, Jeffrey W. McClurken delivered the banner lecture "Take Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families"

The Civil War ended in spring 1865, but for Confederate veterans and their families, its consequences persisted far longer as they began to pick up the pieces of their civilian lives in the devastated South. In his new book, Jeffrey W. McClurken assesses the wide-ranging effects of the war on Confederate veteran families in Southside Virginia. Coming to terms with postwar reality on an individual level meant reconstructing the household and seeking jobs and financial assistance. It also involved the state in providing replacement limbs for amputees, pensions, and homes for old soldiers and widows. These changes would influence the shape of southern society for generations to come. Dr. McClurken teaches history at the University of Mary Washington.

(Introduction by Nelson D. Lankford)

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 July 22, 2010, Jack Mountcastle discussed photos from the temporary exhibition Memories of World War II: Photographs from the Archives of The Associated Press. The exhibition presented a stunning array of photographs from the greatest war in human history. It included photographs of Hitler and Mussolini at their peak, Londoners during the Blitz, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, Allied leaders at Tehran, GIs in Normandy, and Marines on the black sands of Iwo Jima. Organized from the archives of the Associated Press, this exhibition presented a spectrum of 121 of the most dramatic photographs from all theaters of the war and the home front. In this lecture Brig. Gen. John W. Mountcastle (USA, Ret.) surveyed the most important of these images. Before retiring from active duty, Jack Mountcastle was the army's chief of military history in Washington, D.C.

(Introduction by Paul A. Levengood)

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 23, 2010, Scott W. Berg delivered the banner lecture "Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary"

In 1791 George Washington asked Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who had been a French volunteer during the American Revolution, to design a new federal city on the Potomac for the young republic. Suffering from constant interference, L'Enfant persisted in his work for a year before being dismissed. Yet, his ambitious geometrical plan for the District of Columbia survived and endures to this day. In Grand Avenues, Scott W. Berg resurrects the cranky L'Enfant and reveals how his influence persists in the nation's capital city. Dr. Berg teaches English at George Mason University.

(Introduction by Nelson D. Lankford)

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