VMHC Lectures

On April 18, 2013, Elizabeth O'Leary delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Winslow Homer's Virginia." When his paintings were exhibited in 1866, artist Winslow Homer gained critical acclaim for picturing "what he has seen and known." Afterward, this reputation for objectivity helped bolster the celebrated artist's long and prosperous career. Focusing on Homer's representations of Virginia during the Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, Elizabeth O'Leary examines the more subjective aspects—political, cultural, and personal—that informed his creation of some of the most enduring images of nineteenth-century America. An art historian who resides in Richmond, O'Leary is the former associate curator of American art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (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 May 16, 2013, Stephanie Deutsch delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South." Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute, and Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, first met in 1911. By charting the lives of these two men both before and after the meeting, Stephanie Deutsch offers a fascinating glimpse into the partnership that would bring thousands of modern schoolhouses to African American communities in the rural South. By the time segregation ended, the "Rosenwald Schools" that sprang from this unlikely partnership were educating one third of the South's African American children. Deutsch, a writer and critic living in Washington, D.C., is the author of "You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South." (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 May 23, 2013 Rick Atkinson delivered the 2013 Stuart G. Christian, Jr., Lecture entitled "The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945." The Stuart G. Christian, Jr., Lecture was named in honor of the former president of the VHS and takes place in the spring. Because "Punky" Christian was a decorated veteran of the Normandy Campaign, we have focused the series on topics from the era of World War II. Previous speakers have included Elizabeth and Michael Norman, Robert Edsel, and Mitchell Zuckoff.

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 16, 2013, Stephanie Deutsch delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South." Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute, and Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, first met in 1911. By charting the lives of these two men both before and after the meeting, Stephanie Deutsch offers a fascinating glimpse into the partnership that would bring thousands of modern schoolhouses to African American communities in the rural South. By the time segregation ended, the "Rosenwald Schools" that sprang from this unlikely partnership were educating one third of the South’s African American children. Deutsch, a writer and critic living in Washington, D.C., is the author of "You Need a Schoolhouse: Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald, and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South." (Introduction by Paul Levengood)

On April 18, 2013, Elizabeth O'Leary delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Winslow Homer's Virginia." When his paintings were exhibited in 1866, artist Winslow Homer gained critical acclaim for picturing "what he has seen and known." Afterward, this reputation for objectivity helped bolster the celebrated artist's long and prosperous career. Focusing on Homer's representations of Virginia during the Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, Elizabeth O'Leary examines the more subjective aspects - political, cultural, and personal - that informed his creation of some of the most enduring images of nineteenth-century America. An art historian who resides in Richmond, O'Leary is the former associate curator of American art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (Introduction by Paul Levengood)

On March 28, 2013, Eugene P. Trani delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: Harrison Salisbury." During his career at the "New York Times", Harrison Salisbury served as the bureau chief in post–World War II Moscow, reported from Hanoi during the Vietnam War, and in retirement he witnessed the Tiananmen Square massacre firsthand. In a new biography of the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Eugene P. Trani and Donald E. Davis make use of Salisbury's personal archive of interviews, articles, and correspondence to shed light on the personal triumphs and shortcomings of this preeminent reporter and illuminate the world in which he lived. Doctor Trani is President Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author, with Davis, of "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: Harrison Salisbury and the New York Times". (Introduction by Paul Levengood)

On March 7, 2013, Jeff Broadwater delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Why Washington Burned and How the President Survived: James Madison and the War of 1812." In his recent biography of the fourth president, Broadwater focuses on James Madison's role in the battle for religious freedom in Virginia, his contributions to the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, his place in the evolution of the party system, his views on slavery, and his relationship with Dolley Madison. In this lecture, Broadwater will shed light on Madison’s performance as a wartime commander in chief and reveal how the unlikely wartime leader survived repeated setbacks in the War of 1812 with his popularity intact. Jeff Broadwater is a professor of history at Barton College. (Introduction by Paul Levengood) This lecture was cosponsored with the War of 1812 Commission and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission.)

On March 7, 2013, Jeff Broadwater delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Why Washington Burned and How the President Survived: James Madison and the War of 1812." In his recent biography of the fourth president, Broadwater focuses on James Madison's role in the battle for religious freedom in Virginia, his contributions to the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, his place in the evolution of the party system, his views on slavery, and his relationship with Dolley Madison. In this lecture, Broadwater will shed light on Madison's performance as a wartime commander in chief and reveal how the unlikely wartime leader survived repeated setbacks in the War of 1812 with his popularity intact. Jeff Broadwater is a professor of history at Barton College. (Introduction by Paul Levengood)

This lecture was cosponsored with the War of 1812 Commission and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission.

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 7, 2013, Henry Wiencek delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves." Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book--based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on previously overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers--opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves--and thanks to a moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. Henry Weincek, a nationally prominent historian and writer, lives in Charlottesville.(Introduction by Paul Levengood)

On January 31, 2013, Lawrence Jackson delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "My Father's Name: A Black Virginia Family after the Civil War." Part history and part detective story, My Father's Name is a moving narrative full of the mixture of anguish and fulfillment that accompanies any search into the history of slavery. In this intimate study of a black Virginia family and neighborhood, Lawrence Jackson vividly reconstructs moments in the lives of his father's grandfather, Edward Jackson, and great-grandfather, Granville Hundley. In the process the author brings to life stories of the people of Pittsylvania County during and immediately after slavery. Lawrence Jackson teaches in the English department at Emory University. (Introduction by Paul Levengood)