SPEAKER SERIES #7: Karen Abbott

Speaker Series #7

THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK:

The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him,

and the Murder That Shocked Jazz- Age America

Karen Abbott - Author, Historian

November 13th  |  7:00 p.m.

 

Karen Abbott masterfully weaves together the epic true crime story of the infamous bootlegger George Remus—who owned 35% of all the liquor in the United States in 1921, the excesses and absurdities of the Jazz Age, the infinite human capacity to deceive, and the murder that shocked the nation.

Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City, American Rose (an Indie Next pick), and, most recently, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, named one of the best books of 2014 by Library Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and Amazon. A native of Philadelphia, she now lives in New York City.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at: www.sotterley.org or call: 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

SPEAKER SERIES #6: Laura Dowling

Speaker Series #6

FLORAL DIPLOMACY: At the White House

Laura Dowling - Author, Floral Designer

 

October 30th  |  7:00 pm

As the one-time Chief Floral Designer at the White House, Laura Dowling managed décor and flowers for thousands of events while using flowers as a strategic tool for communicating diplomatic, symbolic and policy messages. She will share her inspiration, techniques, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the official and private White House.

 

Laura Dowling served as Chief Floral Designer at the White House from 2009 until 2015. As creative director for flowers and décor, she managed White House floral design for thousands of official and private events, including state dinners, parties, receptions and large-scale installations, such as the Fourth of July, Halloween and the iconic White House Christmas. Her lush and lively floral creations also graced the White House state rooms, East and West Wing offices, Camp David and the Presidential private residence. As Chief Floral Designer, Laura launched innovative strategic partnerships with the nation’s top artists and designers, White House policy staff, including the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) and Presidential Innovation Fellows, creating imaginative, cutting-edge décor and flowers.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at www.sotterley.org or call 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

SPEAKER SERIES #5: Dr. Ralph Eshelman

Speaker Series #5

SINKING LANDS AND RISING SEAS:

Climate Change, Evolution of Chesapeake Bay

& Effects on Cultural Resources

Dr. Ralph Eshelman - Paleontologist, Historian

October 9th  |  7:00 p.m.

This illustrated talk covers the often misunderstood concepts of Relative Sea Level Rise, Climate Change over time, and the consequences. Dr. Ralph Eshelman has a unique understanding of Climate Change as a paleontologist and historian who has visited the Arctic and Antarctica over fifty times during his career.

 

Dr. Eshelman is the former director of the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland and is a specialist in vertebrate paleontology and paleo-environmental studies.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan with a major in geology and vertebrate paleontology and a minor in ecology. His earlier studies were at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of Iowa. He was a Research Associate in the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution from 1975 until 2005. He is active in several professional organizations including the American Association for Quaternary Environment, vice-president for Science and Stewardship of the Maryland-Washington D.C. Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Patuxent Riverkeeper, and Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Honors include Outstanding Young Men in America (1981) and Emerging Young Leaders of America (1989). Eshelman is widely published in and lectures on geology and paleontology as well as maritime, polar and military history. His research interests have taken him to many parts of the world.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at www.sotterley.org or call 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

SPEAKER SERIES #4: Gary Powers, Jr.

 

Speaker Series #4

SPY PILOT

Gary Powers, Jr. - Author, Historian

September 18th  |  7:00 p.m.

 

One of the most talked-about events of the Cold War was the downing of the American U-2 spy plane piloted by his father, Francis Gary Powers, over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. Along with author/historian Keith Dunnavant, he has written this new account of his father’s life based on personal files that were previously unavailable. Almost sixty years after the event, this will be the definitive account of a famous Cold War incident, one proving that Francis Gary Powers acted honorably through a trying ordeal in service to his country.

 

Francis Gary Powers Jr. is the founder and chairman emeritus of The Cold War Museum, a 501(c) (3) charity in Vint Hill, Virginia, near Washington, DC. As chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study, he works with the National Park Service and leading Cold War experts to identify historic Cold War sites for commemorating, interpreting, and preservation. He served as a consultant to Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller, Bridge of Spies. He lectures internationally and appears regularly on the History, Discovery, and A&E Channels. 

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at www.sotterley.org or call 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

SPEAKER SERIES #3: O. James Lighthizer

 

Speaker Series #3

HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND PLACE-BASED TEACHING: The Importance of Knowing our History and Culture

in Order to Preserve our Democratic Republic 

O. James Lighthizer - President of the American Battlefield Trust

 

August 28th  |  7:00 p.m.

For the past 20 years, O. James Lighthizer has been responsible for the preservation of battlefield sites involved in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Under his leadership, the American Battlefield Trust has saved over 50,000 acres of land in 24 states.

 

A dynamic speaker, Lighthizer will discuss how place-based education on this land can teach present and future generations of Americans about their country’s history, values and culture. Many of our nation’s most important principles and ideals were made real on battlefields through the sacrifices of citizen
soldiers, and place-based teaching effectively tells this story of the creation and defining of the United States, warts and all: one of the greatest ever told.

 

Lighthizer has been the president of the American Battlefield Trust for twenty years. He is a “recovering politician” from the state of Maryland, having previously served its citizens as a state legislator, Anne Arundel County Executive and State Secretary of Transportation. He is privileged to lead the American Battlefield Trust, an organization of some 50,000 members throughout America who have saved, to date, over 50,000 acres of American Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefield land in 24 states. The Trust is the most successful private-sector historic land preservation organization in American history and is also a leader in battlefield interpretation and education, telling the story of what happened on this hallowed ground.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at www.sotterley.org or call 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

SPEAKER SERIES #2: Robert Parkinson

Speaker Series #2

THE COMMON CAUSE: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution

Robert Parkinson - Historian, Author,  Associate Professor

June 19th  |  7:00 p.m.

When the Revolutionary War began, the odds of a united, continental effort to resist the British seemed nearly impossible. Few on either side of the Atlantic expected thirteen colonies to stick together in a war against their cultural cousins. In this pathbreaking book, Robert Parkinson argues that to unify the patriot side, political and communications leaders linked British tyranny to colonial prejudices, stereotypes, and fears about insurrectionary slaves and violent Indians. Manipulating newspaper networks, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and their fellow agitators broadcast stories of British agents inciting African Americans and Indians to take up arms against the American rebellion. Using rhetoric like “domestic insurrectionists” and “merciless savages,” the founding fathers rallied the people around a common enemy and made racial prejudice a cornerstone of the new Republic.

 

Parkinson has held fellowships at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg, the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, the David Library of the American Revolution, the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, and the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. His teaching interests include the American Revolution, colonial America, the history of American slavery, Native American history, and nation-making and race in the early modern world.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at www.sotterley.org or call 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

SPEAKER SERIES #1: Marc Leepson

 

 

Speaker Series #1

SAVING MONTICELLO:

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built

Marc Leepson - Historian, Author, Journalist

May 22nd  |  7:00 p.m.

Marc Leepson’s book Saving Monticello: The Levy Family’s Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built has been hailed as “a work of historical importance, a valuable addition to Jeffersoniana and Jewish-American history, and a cautionary tale of historic preservation” by the Richmond Times Dispatch. With a dramatic narrative sweep across generations, this book vividly recounts the turbulent saga of Jefferson’s estate.

 

Thomas Jefferson died in debt—to the tune of more than $100,000. Forced to sell thousands of acres of his lands and nearly all of his furniture and artwork, his heirs bid a final goodbye to Monticello itself. The house was sold to the highest bidder. "Saving Monticello" offers the first complete post-Jefferson history of this American icon and reveals the amazing story of how one Jewish family saved the house that became a family home to them for 89 years -- longer than it ever was to the Jeffersons. Two generations of the Levy family have saved the house from ruin at two different points in history. United by a fierce love of country, the Levy descendants venerated the Founding Fathers for establishing a religiously tolerant and democratic nation where their family had thrived since 1733, largely free of the persecutions and prejudices of the Old World.

 

Leepson is a journalist, historian and the author of nine books, most recently: Ballad of the Green Beret, What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life, Lafayette: Idealist General, Desperate Engagement, Flag: An American Biography, and Saving Monticello. Additionally, he edited The Webster’s New World Dictionary of the Vietnam War and wrote two books on health topics in the 1980s. A former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., he has been a free-lance writer since 1986. He has written for many newspapers, magazines, and resource publications.

 

FREE to the public. Seating is limited; make reservations online at: www.sotterley.org OR CALL 301-373-2280.

 

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Sotterley for the past 12 years.

 

2019 Speaker Series Presenters Announced

 

2019 Speaker Series at Historic Sotterley

Presenters Announced

Historic Sotterley is pleased to announce the presenters for the 2019 Speaker Series. An important community outreach, this series is yet another way that this National Historic Landmark fulfills its mission of serving as an educational and cultural resource.

The Boeing Company has generously sponsored the Speaker Series at Historic Sotterley for the past 12 years. Because they are dedicated to promoting education and the arts within the Southern Maryland community, these events are free to the public.

Due to limited seating, please sign up on our website or call 301-373-2280 for reservations.

 

SAVING MONTICELLO:

The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built

Marc Leepson - Historian, Author, Journalist

May 22nd  |  7:00 p.m.

THE COMMON CAUSE: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution

Robert Parkinson - Historian, Author,  Associate Professor

June 19th  |  7:00 p.m. 

HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND PLACE-BASED TEACHING:

The Importance of Knowing our History and

Culture in Order to Preserve our Democratic Republic 

O. James Lighthizer - President of the American Battlefield Trust

August 28th  |  7:00 p.m. 

SPY PILOT

Gary Powers, Jr. - Author, Historian

September 18th  |  7:00 p.m.

SINKING LANDS AND RISING SEAS:

Climate Change, Evolution of Chesapeake Bay & Effects on Cultural Resources

Ralph Eshelman - Paleontologist, Historian

October 9th  |  7:00 p.m.

FLORAL DIPLOMACY: At the White House

Laura Dowling - Author, Floral Designer

October 30th  |  7:00 pm

THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK

Karen Abbott - Author, Historian

November 13th  |  7:00 p.m.

Speaker Series #6

 

“Inside Job” - Sacred and Stolen:

Confessions of a Museum Director

by Gary Vikan

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

7:00 p.m. in the Barn

"Inside Job" is a lively, audience-engaging talk drawn from two chapters of Gary Vikan's recent memoir, SACRED AND STOLEN: Confessions of a Museum Director. In his talk, Dr. Vikan will explore the comedy and tragedy to two major museum thefts that he had the privilege (or curse) of witnessing at first hand. One involved the disappearance of nearly 150 works, and the other took more than six decades to solve!

Gary Vikan was Director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore from 1994 to 2013; from 1985 to 1994, he was the museum’s Chief Curator and Curator of Medieval art. Before coming to Baltimore, Vikan was Senior Associate at Harvard’s Center for Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. A native of Minnesota, he received his BA from Carleton College and his PhD from Princeton University. An internationally known medieval scholar, Vikan curated a number of critically-acclaimed exhibitions at the Walters.
 

Vikan serves on the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts of the Salzburg Global Seminar; he is a Councilor of the Maryland State Arts Council. He has been an advisor to the Getty Leadership Institute and Princeton University’s Department of Art and Archaeology. He was appointed by President Clinton in 1999 to his Cultural Property Advisory Committee and was knighted by the French Minister of Culture in the Order of Arts and Letters in 2002.
 

Vikan stepped down from the Walters directorship to write, lecture, and teach; and to provide consulting services as Vikan Consulting LLC to cultural non-profits, collectors. His recent books include Early Byzantine Pilgrimage Art (2010); Postcards from the Walters (2012); From the Holy Land to Graceland (2012); and SACRED and STOLEN: Confessions of a Museum Director (2016).

 

This Speaker Series event is FREE to the public.

Due to limited seating, please call 301-373-2280 for reservations.

Thanks to The Boeing Company for supporting the Speaker Series at Sotterley for 11 years running.