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History Camp Iowa 2021

History Camp Iowa 2021 If you have a passion for history, History Camp is for you. It’s a unique opportunity to spend a day with others from all walks of life who have a passion for history, from authors, teachers, genealogists, and students, to park rangers, museum volunteers, librarians, and individuals from other professions and backgrounds. History Camp Iowa 2020 marked the event's fifth year in Des Moines. More than 100 people passionate about history came together to share their stories in two dozen sessions. History Camp started in Boston in 2014, and has grown larger every year. History Camp Iowa is a totally independent event, organized entirely by volunteers. Find us on Facebook! Main Event Saturday, February 20, 2021, 8 a.m. Virtual visit: Museum of Danish America Wednesday, February 17, 6 p.m. Virtual visit: Amana Heritage Museum Thursday, February 18, 6 p.m. Virtual Visit: State Historical Society of [Read more...]

2023-03-02T21:37:28-05:00March 22, 2021|

Charles Glass— Soldiers Don’t Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War

Charles Glass Soldiers Don’t Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War A brilliant and poignant history of the friendship between two great war poets, Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen, alongside a narrative investigation of the origins of PTSD and the literary response to World War I. From the moment war broke out across Europe in 1914, the world entered a new, unparalleled era of modern warfare. Soldiers faced relentless machine gun shelling, incredible artillery power, flame throwers, and gas attacks. Within the first four months of the war, the British Army recorded the nervous collapse of ten percent of its officers; the loss of such manpower to mental illness—not to mention death and physical wounds—left the army unable to fill its ranks. Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen was twenty-four years old when he was admitted to the newly established Craiglockhart [Read more...]

2024-01-19T12:30:10-05:00June 8, 2023|

Benjamin Carter Hett — The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic

Benjamin Carter Hett The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen. Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. He would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not responded to a spate of populist insurgencies by trying to co-opt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis [Read more...]

2023-10-25T00:33:01-04:00October 13, 2022|

Alexander Rose — The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy

Alexander Rose The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy In 1861, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, two secret agents—one a Confederate, the other his Union rival—were dispatched to neutral Britain, each entrusted with a vital mission. The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was to acquire a cutting-edge clandestine fleet intended to break President Lincoln’s blockade of Confederate ports, sink Northern merchant vessels, and drown the U.S. Navy’s mightiest ships at sea. The profits from gunrunning and smuggling cotton—Dixie’s notorious “white gold”—would finance the scheme. Opposing him was Thomas Dudley, a resolute Quaker lawyer and abolitionist. He was determined to stop Bulloch by any means necessary in a spy-versus-spy game of move and countermove, gambit and sacrifice, intrigue and betrayal. If Dudley failed, Britain would ally with the South and imperil a Northern victory. [Read more...]

2024-01-19T12:34:16-05:00May 4, 2023|

Larry Stuart — Drawing on History: How to use graphic design to connect your organization to your audience

Larry Stuart Drawing on History: How to use graphic design to connect your organization to your audience Do you have a history project that needs art or design? Organizations need logos, authors need book covers, events need promo materials: how should you think about the art you need for your project? Join me as I discuss the art I create about American history. We’ll talk about how my interest in art and history started and how I began creating “gig” posters about historic events. I’ll talk about researching information about an event and resources I use to study typography and design styles throughout American history. Several case studies will be presented showing how an idea develops from a small scribble to a final print. Finally I’ll give you some tips on working with your designer/illustrator to help achieve your art goals for your project. [Recorded August 12, [Read more...]

2024-01-19T11:48:23-05:00August 12, 2023|

Claire Bellerjeau & Tiffany Yecke Brooks, PhD — Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth

Claire Bellerjeau and Tiffany Yecke Brooks, PhD Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth Co-Authors Claire Bellerjeau & Tiffany Yecke Brooks on their new book, Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution: The True Story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth, which brings to life the story of Elizabeth, an enslaved woman who was sold and bound for Charleston when she was brought back to New York by Revolutionary War spy, Robert Townsend. Over time, Elizabeth turns Townsend into an ardent abolitionist. [Publisher’s excerpt.] In January 1785, a young African American woman named Elizabeth was put on board the Lucretia in New York Harbor, bound for Charleston, where she would be sold to her fifth master in just twenty-two years. Leaving behind a small child she had little hope of ever seeing again, Elizabeth was faced with the stark reality of being [Read more...]

2024-01-19T14:01:23-05:00December 30, 2021|

Michelle D. Novak — Revolutionary and Civil War Research: New and Overlooked Resources

Michelle D. Novak, MI Revolutionary and Civil War Research: New and Overlooked Resources Believe it or not, researching your Revolutionary and Civil War ancestors has just gotten a lot more interesting. In this talk, we’ll look at some under-used resources at the State level, a whole new collection at the NYPL, and the digital changes happening at NARA—which brings more access at the same time that records are being retired to deep storage. [Presented March 28, 2016.]

2024-01-19T15:10:42-05:00March 28, 2016|

Kiersten Marcil — The Peasant Prince in America: Thaddeus Kosciuszko

Kiersten Marcil The Peasant Prince in America: Thaddeus Kosciuszko Trained in both the visual and military arts in Paris, Polish-Lithuanian immigrant Thaddeus Koscuiszko spoke little English upon landing in America in 1776, but he immediately wowed our Founding Fathers and was welcomed to join the Cause for Liberty. With great success, he engineered the Turning Point of the Revolutionary War and designed America’s oldest (and continuously occupied) military base, West Point. Though he did get challenged to a duel by Angelica Schuyler’s husband… Come discover a little about this Yorktown soldier and true hero of Saratoga through drawings, stories, and letters from his lifetime. [Recorded August 12, 2023] Kiersten Marcil is an author and adventurer into history. Kiersten is the ambassador of a fantastical ride through the hidden deer paths of the American Revolutionary War in her book series, The Enlightened. Growing up, the Battlefields of [Read more...]

2024-01-19T12:09:55-05:00August 12, 2023|

Jane Hampton Cook and Kyle Jenks — First Amendment Origin Stories and an Interview with James Madison

Jane Hampton Cook and Kyle Jenks First Amendment Origin Stories and an Interview with James Madison 2021 marks the 230th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights, which was ratified on December 15, 1791, and the 245th Anniversary of Virginia Declaration of Rights. Have you ever wondered what injustices occurred before and during the Revolutionary War that led Americans to establish the First Amendment? How did “cancel culture” turn Ben Franklin into a free speech and freedom of the press proponent? What happened when the Continental Congress petitioned King George III in 1775? How did John Adams define “diversity”? In the first half, author Jane Hampton Cook will share origin stories relating to the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. The second half Hampton Cook will interview a special guest—President James Madison about his role in forming the Bill of Rights. [Read more...]

2023-08-31T04:59:34-04:00July 10, 2021|

Meighan Maguire & Carlos Ortega — Rancho Los Cerritos — Historic Site Tour

Meighan Maguire & Carlos Ortega Rancho Los Cerritos — Historic Site Tour Join us for a "living history" tour provided presented by six costumed docents who portray people associated with the adobe in different eras, 1840s-1940s. You'll also meet the RLC curator, who will discuss how the site's current exhibition, "Roots in California: Concepts of Home." Rancho Los Cerritos (RLC) is a National, State, and Local Historic Landmark located in Long Beach, California. The Monterey-colonial adobe was built in 1844 as the headquarters for a cattle ranch, when this region was part of Mexico. The gardens also date to the 1840s, but were landscaped in the 1930s -- when the adobe was renovated. Today, the five-acre site echoes with the stories of all who have called this land home over time. Visitors of all ages can get a glimpse into California’s past. Session Handouts [Read more...]

2023-11-22T09:48:06-05:00November 7, 2022|
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