Virginia Historical Society Podcasts

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Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Secession, Civil War by David C. Keehn Apr 19, 2021

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On June 13, 2013, David C. Keehn delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Secession, Civil War." The Knights of the Golden Circle was a mysterious southern-based society that set out in 1859 to establish a slave empire in Mexico. In late 1860, it shifted its focus to supporting the secession movement and intimidating Unionists in the South. According to David Keehn, once the war began, the Knights helped build up the nascent Confederate army and carried out various clandestine actions, including an attempt to assassinate Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in 1861. Keehn, an attorney from Allentown, Pa., is the author of Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War.

Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia by Brian D. McKnight Apr 19, 2021

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On July 25, Brian D. McKnight delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia." During the four years of the Civil War, the border between eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia was highly contested territory, alternately occupied by both the Confederacy and the Union. In Contested Borderland, Brian McKnight examines the features of the region's geography and the influence of the attacks on borderlands caught in the crossfire of opposing forces. He reveals how the dual occupation of the Union and Confederate armies divided the borderland population, creating hostilities within the region that would persist long after the war's conclusion. Professor McKnight teaches history at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Ocracoke: The Pearl of the Outer Banks by Ray McAllister Apr 19, 2021

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On August 8, 2013, Ray McAllister delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Ocracoke: The Pearl of the Outer Banks." The Outer Banks have enticed Virginians with the lure of sun, sky, and sea for generations. Despite this idyllic appeal, these once-isolated barrier islands have also witnessed a turbulent past. Pirates, hurricanes, shipwrecks, and U-boats all make their appearance in the varied story of the Outer Banks. Ray McAllister, an award-winning former Richmond Times Dispatch columnist, has become the established chronicler of coastal North Carolina with his latest volume on Ocracoke, which follows earlier books on Hatteras Island, Wrightsville Beach, and Topsail Island.

War and Pieces: Quilts through America's War Years by Neva Hart Apr 19, 2021

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On Thursday, August 22, Neva Hart delivered a banner lecture entitled "War and Pieces: Quilts through America's War Years." For soldiers in the field or citizen soldiers who declared the moral equivalent of war, quilts have been used throughout America's history not only as comfort, but to further "the Cause." It wasn't the Boston Tea Party that started the fight! Learn how quilt makers, impacted by textile trade and social trends, were influenced by the Revolutionary War to today’s Middle East conflicts. This illustrated lecture featuring examples as early as the late 1700s, will discuss embargoes to the Colonies, development of America's textile manufacturing, the Underground Railroad, Civil War, women and politics, development of the Red Cross, Quilts of Valor, and virtual quilts. Neva Hart served as president of the Professional Association of Appraisers-Quilted Textiles and as a board member for the Virginia Quilt Museum. Editor and contributor to Quilts of Virginia, 1607–1899 (2006), she writes, lectures, researches and collects antique and art quilts from her home near Roanoke.

Fighting for Freedom: African Americans and the War of 1812 by Gene Allen Smith Apr 19, 2021

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On Wednesday September, 4, Gene Allen Smith, delivered a banner lecture entitled "Fighting for Freedom: African Americans and the War of 1812." Images of American slavery conjure up cotton plantations and African Americans locked in bondage until the Civil War. Yet early in the nineteenth century the state of slavery was very different, and the political vicissitudes of the young nation offered diverse possibilities to slaves. Though surprising numbers of slaves did assist the Americans in the War of 1812, the conflict created opportunities for slaves to find freedom among the British. The Slaves' Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 by Gene Smith offers a fascinating and original narrative history of an extraordinary yet little-known chapter in the dark saga of American history.

First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Families by Mary Theobald Apr 19, 2021

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On October 10, Mary Theobald delivered a banner lecture entitled First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Families. Conceived during the Revolutionary War, built during the War of 1812, and looted during the Civil War, Virginia's executive mansion has endured fires, threats, riots, and hurricanes. Written to coincide with the mansion's bicentennial in 2013, First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Family by Mary Miley Theobald brings to life the private stories of the governors and their families who shaped the destiny of this unique home. The book traces triumph and tragedy through the turbulence of wars, fires, economic depressions, and renovations in a story that mirrors Virginia's progress from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first.

Race to the Top of the World: Richard Byrd and the First Flight to the North Pole by Sheldon Bart Dec 10, 2013

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On January 23 at noon, Sheldon Bart delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Race to the Top of the World: Richard Byrd and the First Flight to the North Pole." In the age of adventure, when dirigibles coasted through the air and vast swaths of the earth remained untouched and unseen by man, one pack of relentless explorers competed in the race of a lifetime: to be the first aviator to fly over the North Pole. The main players in this high stakes game were Richard Byrd, a dashing navy officer and early aviation pioneer; and Roald Amundsen, a bitter rival of Byrd’s and a hardened veteran of polar expeditions. Each man was determined to be the first to fly over the North Pole, despite brutal weather conditions, financial disasters, world wars, and their own personal demons. Byrd and Amundsen’s epic struggle for air primacy ended in a Homeric episode, in which one man had to fly to the rescue of his downed nemesis and left behind an enduring mystery: who was the first man to fly over the North Pole? Sheldon Bart, an authority on polar pioneer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, is the president and founder of the Wilderness Research Foundation and a member of the board of governors of the American Polar Society..

Mapping Virginia: Pictures of a Moving Place, 1587-1783 by William C. Wooldridge Dec 10, 2013

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On December 5, William C. Wooldridge delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Mapping Virginia: Pictures of a Moving Place, 1587-1783." Drawing from the engaging images in Mapping Virginia: From the Age of Discovery to the Civil War, Bill Wooldridge shows the very different ways that cartographers, and by implication their audiences, conceived of Virginia from generation to generation from the sixteenth century through the Revolutionary War. Until the mid-eighteenth century, these changing visions of Virginia had only a distant connection to changes in the colony's legal boundaries. Instead, they reflected the Old World's evolving understanding of the place, from exotic Eden to much of Eastern North America to the country around Chesapeake Bay to imperial England's greatest province. William C. Wooldridge, a retired attorney and current VHS trustee, is the author of Mapping Virginia and of several articles on cartographic history.

Carillon: The Story of a Richmond Community by Elizabeth O'Leary Nov 18, 2013

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On November 14, 2013, Elizabeth O'Leary delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Carillon: The Story of a Richmond Community." An active community nestled near Richmond's Byrd Park, the Carillon neighborhood has a surprisingly rich, complex history. Basing her lecture on her recently published work,The Carillon Neighborhood: A History, Dr. Elizabeth O'Leary will relate the story of the area’s land and people from the colonial frontier to antebellum farmland; Gilded Age streetcar suburb to upscale Jazz Age development; site of a postwar housing boom to hub for civil rights activism. The lecture will provide special focus on the formation of the Carillon Civic Association and its efforts in the turbulent 1960s and '70s in nurturing one of Virginia's first successfully integrated communities.

Family of Assassins: The Surratts of Maryland by David O. Stewart Nov 11, 2013

Show notes

On October 31, David O. Stewart delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Family of Assassins: The Surratts of Maryland." Everyone knows about John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. But what about Mary Surratt, the boardinghouse keeper who "kept the nest that hatched the egg" of assassination and was the first woman executed by the United States government? Or her son John, a Confederate courier and boon companion to Booth, who fled through Canada and Britain to Vatican City, ending up as a Papal Zouave until he was chased across the Mediterranean and hauled back to face a Washington, D.C., jury that deadlocked and set him free?

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