Press Release: September 13, 2011

National Archives at Kansas City

National Archives to Host Historian Christopher Stowe for Lee and Grant Speaker Series

For More Information Contact:
Kimberlee Ried, 816-268-8072

Kansas City, (MO)…TThe National Archives at Kansas City will host historian Dr. Christopher Stowe on Tuesday, September 27, at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture entitled The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. A 6:00 p.m. reception will precede the event. In addition, attendees are encouraged to view the Lee and Grant exhibition prior to the lecture.

In 1877 Ulysses S. Grant reflected upon his two terms as President of the United States. "It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training," he wrote in his final presidential address. The Grant presidency is remembered for its controversies and scandals, including the 1869 Black Friday affair to the Whiskey Ring of 1875--events that, indeed, may have been less damaging to Grant's administration had he had shown more political judgment. Still, Grant's presidency saw its share of successes in domestic and foreign policy, from the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment and the Naturalization Act of 1870 to the Washington Treaty of 1871. Stowe will discuss the major events of the Grant presidency, focusing upon the soldier-turned-politician whose abiding policy of "Let Us Have Peace" served a nation with mixed results during the transformative Gilded Age.

About the speaker Christopher S. Stowe earned his doctorate in history from the University of Toledo and has served as an associate professor within the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College since 2006. The author of three dozen articles and reviews in American and military history, Stowe is the author of the forthcoming George Gordon Meade: A Nineteenth-Century Life, to be published by the Kent State University Press.

For more information or to make a reservation for this free event call 816-268-8010 or email kansascity.educate@nara.gov.

Additional Information
Lee and Grant will be available for viewing at the National Archives at Kansas City, through October 22, 2011. To schedule a group tour or for additional information, call 816-268-8000 or visit www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city.

Lee and Grant has been made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The exhibit was originally developed by the Virginia Historical Society and co-curated by Dr. William M. S. Rasmussen, Lora M. Robins Curator of Art at the Virginia Historical Society and Dr. Robert S. Tilton, Chairman of the Department of English, University of Connecticut, Storrs. This exhibit is toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance through NEH on the Road. NEH on the Road offers an exciting opportunity for communities of all sizes to experience some of the best exhibitions funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Mid-America Arts Alliance was founded in 1972 and is the oldest regional nonprofit arts organization in the United States. For more information, visit www.maaa.org or www.nehontheroad.org.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to more than 50,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 Federal agencies. Serving the Central Plains Region, the archives holds records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108. It is open to the public Tuesday - Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for research, with the exhibits open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 816-268-8000 or visit us online.

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