VMHC Lectures

Staggering numbers of sick and wounded soldiers placed unprecedented demands on the practice of medicine on both sides during the Civil War. This lecture describes the state of medical science in the 1860s and its application in Virginia during the war, mostly on the Confederate side. It also assess the complicated issue of care on the battlefield, transportation of patients to fixed general hospitals, and the role of sanitation. Dr. Adrian Wheat practiced medicine for many years as an army surgeon and helped found the Society of Civil War Surgeons. Most recently he advised the VHS on surgical topics for the exhibition An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia. This lecture was cosponsored with the Richmond National Battlefield Park.(Introduction by Paul 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 November 30, 2011, Adam Goodheart delivered the banner lecture "1861: The Civil War Awakening"

With his new book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening, Adam Goodheart revisits the most turbulent and consequential year in American history. In the hands of a master storyteller, we relive a time that witnessed the breakup of the nation and the first bloodletting in what became a four-year catalog of internecine violence and destruction. As the first year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial comes to an end, this lecture pulls together all of the drama and tumult of 1861 and present vividly the characters who populated that decisive era. Adam Goodheart teaches history and is director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Maryland. (Introduction by Paul 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 November 30, 2011, Adam Goodheart delivered the banner lecture "Virginia's Confederate Monuments"

Hundreds of memorials in stone commemorate the Civil War in Virginia at courthouses, cemeteries, town squares, and battlefields. With An Illustrated Guide to Virginia's Confederate Monuments, Timothy S. Sedore presents the first comprehensive handbook of this legacy of America's greatest national trauma in the Old Dominion. Timothy S. Sedore is a professor of English at The City University of New York, Bronx Community College. (Introduction by Paul 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 January 26, 2012, Maurie D. McInnis delivered the banner lecture "Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade"

In 1853 Eyre Crowe, a young British artist, visited a slave auction in Richmond and captured the scene in sketches that he later developed into a series of illustrations and paintings, including the culminating work, Slaves Waiting for Sale, Richmond, Virginia. In her new book, Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, Maurie D. McInnis uses Crowe's paintings to explore the trade in Richmond, Charleston, and New Orleans. Through that exploration, which her illustrated lecture will present, she describes the evolving iconography of abolitionist art and the role of visual culture in the transatlantic world of abolitionism. Professor McInnis teaches in the department of art at the University of Virginia. (Introduction by Cheryl Magazine)

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 23, 2012, Samuel K. Roberts delivered the banner lecture "When the Sun Stood Still: Reflections on the Rev. John Jasper"

Among the larger than life personages in Richmond during the latter years of the nineteenth century is to be counted the pastor of Jackson Ward’s Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, the Rev. John Jasper. He was born a slave in the second decade of the century, and his mark on Richmond's popular consciousness lasts even to the present. In large measure, this is because of a sermon he first preached in 1878, "The Sun Do Move and the Earth Am Square." Hailed by some and vilified by others, Jasper's sermon seemed to defy modern notions of astronomy. Yet, he was asked to preach it more than 250 times, including before the General Assembly, before his death in 1901. Reflections on this enigmatic character will explore the context in which his audiences heard him, as well as that of our own. Samuel K. Roberts is the Anne Borden and E. Hervey Evans Professor of Theology and Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary. This lecture was cosponsored with Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church.

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 15, 2012, David O. Stewart delivered the banner lecture "American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America"

A canny and charismatic politician who rose to become third vice president of the new United States, Aaron Burr seemed to throw it all away in 1805 and 1806 in an extraordinary attempt to lead a secession of the American West. American Emperor by acclaimed author David O. Stewart traces Burr from the threshold of the presidency in the contested election of 1800, through his duel with Alexander Hamilton, and then across the American West as he schemed with foreign ambassadors, the traitorous general-in-chief of the army, and future presidents, including Andrew Jackson. His immense ambition was matched by his undisguised contempt for Thomas Jefferson, a president he thought ineffective and unwise. The indecisive Jefferson finally had Burr arrested and charged with treason. Burr led his own legal defense in an historic treason trial in Richmond before Chief Justice John Marshall, winning an acquittal and freedom. Mr. Stewart is an attorney who practices law in Washington, D.C. (Introduction by Paul 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 march 16, 2012, Helen Rountree delivered the banner lecture "Before It Was Virginia: Setting the Stage"

When English settlers arrived here 400 years ago, they encountered the first Virginians, the most famous of whom are the subjects of Helen C. Rountree's book, Pocahontas, Powhatan, and Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. This presentation was the keynote address of "From the Earth: The Environment in Virginia's Past and Future," a free day-long conference on the historical relationship between Virginia's environment and its people. The conference was made possible by a generous grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment. Dr. Rountree is professor emerita of anthropology at Old Dominion University. She now concentrates full time on writing and speaking about early Virginia Indians, as well as consulting with the Virginia Council on Indians and on tribal recognition. (Introduction by Gerald P. McCarthy)

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 28, 2012, Jeremy Black delivered the banner lecture "Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519-1871"

In his latest book, prize-winning author Jeremy Black traces the competition for control of North America from the landing in 1519 of Spanish troops in what became Mexico to 1871 when, with the Treaty of Washington, Britain accepted American mastery in North America. The story Black tells is one of conflict, diplomacy, and geopolitics. The eventual result was the creation of a United States of America that stretched from Atlantic to Pacific and dominated the continent. The gradual withdrawal of France and Spain, the British accommodation to the expanding U.S. reality, the impact of the American Civil War, and the subjugation of native peoples are all carefully drawn out. Jeremy Black teaches history at Exeter University in the United Kingdom. This lecture is cosponsored with the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Virginia. (Introduction by Nicole McMullin)

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, 2012, Mitchell Zuckoff delivered the 2012 Stuart G. Christian, Jr., Lecture entitled Lost in Shangri-La: A Story of Survival and Rescue during World War II. The Stuart G. Christian, Jr., Lecture was named in honor of the former president of the VHS (1989–91). Near the end of World War II, a plane carrying twenty-four members of the United States military, including nine Women’s Army Corps members, crashed into the New Guinea jungle. Three survivors were stranded deep in a jungle valley inhabited by cannibals. The story of their survival and the efforts undertaken to save them are the crux of Lost in Shangri-La. A riveting story of deliverance under the most unlikely circumstances, Mitchell Zuckoff’s book deserves its place among the great survival stories of World War II. Zuckoff teaches journalism at Boston University. (Introduction by Paul 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 April 12, 2012, Jill Titus delivered a lecture entitled Brown's Battleground in Prince Edward County, Virginia. When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Prince Edward County abolished its public school system rather than integrate. In her new book, Brown's Battleground: Students, Segregationists, and the Struggle for Justice in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Jill Titus situates the crisis in Prince Edward County within the seismic changes brought by Brown and Virginia's decision to resist desegregation. She reveals the ways that ordinary people, black and white, battled, and continue to battle, over the role of public education in the United States. Dr. Titus is associate director of the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. (Introduction by Paul 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.