President Ayers will open Lincoln exhibit with a lecture on Lincoln's image before and during the Civil War
Edward L. Ayers, award-winning author, professor of history and president of the University of Richmond, will deliver the opening lecture for “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” a traveling exhibition that will be on display at University of Richmond Downtown Oct. 9-Nov. 13.
His talk, “Lincoln: Real and Imagined,” will be held Oct. 9, 5:30 p.m., at the Library of Virginia. Ayers will explore Lincoln’s image at the time of secession and during the war, comparing what his enemies said about him with his words and actions.
Ayers is the author of 10 books on the American South. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the National Medal for the Humanities, awarded by President Obama at the White House in the summer of 2013. He has also won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492 as well being named a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
His digital archive project, “The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War,” has been used in thousands of classrooms around the world, and he is working closely with the Digital Scholarship Lab at UR on a digital atlas of American history, funded by a large grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Ayers also is a co-host of “BackStory,” a nationally syndicated radio show that ties history to the present day.
The exhibition is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center. The center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the traveling version.
Local sponsors are the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, Library of Virginia, University of Richmond Museums and UR Downtown.
The exhibition and all events are free and open to the public. To register for the talk or for more information, visit http://jepson.richmond.edu or call 804-287-6522.
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