Press/Journalists

Press Release
Press Release · Tuesday, June 2, 1998

Press Release
June 2, 1998
National Archives Sponsors Lecture Series in July and August

Washington, DC. . . In July and August the National Archives and Records Administration sponsors a series of lectures on a wide-range of subjects including Independence Day, Bastille Day, African American history, the Presidency, and World War II.

The programs are free and open to the public and will take place at the downtown National Archives Building, Pennsylvania Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets, NW, unless otherwise noted. The public may verify times and dates by calling the National Archives public events line at 202-501-5000 (TDD users may call 202-501-5404).

Wednesday, July 1 - Author Lecture Booksigning
World War II/Naval History
Michael Gannon, author of Black May: The Epic Story of the Allies’ Defeat of the U-Boats in May 1943, will discuss his new book. Published by Harper Collins. The program will be introduced by Timothy Mulligan, National Archives subject specialist in Captured German Records. Noon. Theater.

Thursday, July 2 - Author Lecture and Booksigning
Independence Day Program
Len Travers, Center for the Study of New England History at the Massachusetts Historical Society, is the author of Celebrating the 4th: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic. He will discuss the parades, parties, firework displays, sporting events, and drinking bouts that marked the Fourth of July during America’s early years, with emphasis on three cities: Boston, Charleston, and Philadelphia. Published by University of Massachusetts. Noon. Theater.

Tuesday, July 7 - Archival Sources Lecture
Methodological Marriages in African American Research
Dr. Debra Newman Ham will outline how to merge a variety of methodologies to gain a richer understanding of African American history and culture. By using traditional methods along with oral history, quantitative analysis, electronic source retrieval, and audiovisual technologies, historians can add important dimensions to their studies. Dr. Ham will discuss several strategies including the use of photographs at both the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Noon. Room 105.

Wednesday, July 8 - Archival Sources Illustrated Lecture
Designs for Democracy series
The Best-Loved Bureau: The National Park Service. The National Park Service (NPS) manages and accommodates visitors to some 375 natural, historical, and recreational areas throughout the nation. Amid controversies about what the park system should contain and how the parks should be preserved and developed, the NPS has remained among the most popular Federal agencies. NPS historian Barry Mackintosh will trace the origins and evolution of the park system and the service’s role in shaping it. The audience may view the exhibit "Designs for Democracy" following the lecture. Noon. Room 105.

Monday, July 13 - Author Lecture and Booksigning
Bastille Day Program
Lloyd Kramer, professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions, will discuss "Lafayette, de Tocqueville, and the French Contribution to American National Identity." Kramer compares the two French travelers and their observations on political revolutions and discuss how early 19th-century Americans came to understand their own history by drawing on French accounts. Published by University of North Carolina Press. Noon. Room 105.

Tuesday, July 14 - Author Lecture and Booksigning
Bastille Day Program/Memoir
Stanley Karnow will read from and discuss Paris in the Fifties, the decade he spent there as a young reporter. A video clip will be shown from the CBS television program Sunday Morning, during which Karnow recently revisited the places he frequented in the 1950's. Published by Time Books. (Please note that during noontime Pennsylvania Avenue between 9th and 12th Streets will be closed to automobile traffic for the Bastille Day Race.) Noon. Room 105.

Wednesday, July 15 - Archival Sources Symposium
"They Served for Honor"
In conjunction with the dedication of the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, DC, the Civil War Conservation Corps (CWCC) presents a symposium on the contributions of the U.S. Colored Troops. Speakers will include Walter B. Hill, Jr., NARA; William A. Gladstone, author and historian; Roger Davidson and Lisa King, Howard University; Robert Young of Company B, 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry reenactors; and Budge Weidman, project manager of the CWCC. 9 A.M. - 11 A.M. Theater.

Thursday, July 16 - Lecture
Presidency series
Marcus Raskin, professor of public policy at George Washington University, will compare policies and character as revealed in the tapes of three Presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. Mr. Raskin, who also is the author of an article on the same subject in The Nation, was a member of the National Security Council Staff during the Kennedy Administration. Noon. Room 105.

Wednesday, July 22 - Archival Sources Lecture
Designs for Democracy series
Paving the Way to a Better America: George Washington Memorial Parkway as a Landscape of Patriotic Ideals. Tim Davis, a landscape historian with the Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service, will trace the parkway project’s history, showing how groups and individuals tried to shape the form, location, and function of the commemorative highway in ways that combined economic and professional self-interest with beliefs about the parkway’s ability to define, promote, and improve American culture. The audience may view the exhibit "Designs for Democracy" following the lecture. Noon. Room 105.

Tuesday, July 28 - Archival Sources Illustrated Lecture
The Long View
Richard Schneider is a National Archives photographer and curator of "The Long View," featuring panoramic photographs from the National Archives. He will discuss panoramic photography and how the facsimile prints were produced using the latest in digital imaging technology and demonstrate the use of a camera. Noon. Lecture Room C. (Please note that this lecture will take place at the National Archives College Park facility, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD. Parking is available.)

Wednesday, August 5 - Archival Sources Lecture
Improving America’s Image in Africa
Race Relations in the United States and American Cultural and Informational Programs in Ghana, 1957 - 66. Beginning in the late 1950's, race relations in the United States began to have an increasing effect on how foreigners viewed the nation. Accordingly, the United States Information Agency developed programs designed to show that the position of African Americans was improving. Today’s lecturer, Kenneth W. Heger, will focus on Ghana, the first nation to receive independence in sub-Saharan Africa, as a model for these programs. Mr. Heger, a NARA archivist, holds a Ph.D. in history and works with records documenting American foreign affairs. Noon. Room 105.

Thursday, August 27 - Lecture and Booksigning
Presidency/Lyndon Johnson’s 90th Birthday
Presidential historian Michael R. Beschloss will discuss Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963 - 1964, a collection of President Johnson’s secretly recorded tapes which Mr. Beschloss has transcribed, annotated, and edited. The only President to record his private conversations from his first day in office, President Johnson’s recently unsealed tapes provide a close-up look at a President taking power. Conversations with leading figures of the day are recorded, as are his personal conversations, which reveal his complex and changing relationships, giving us the history "with the bark off." Published in hardcover and in paperback by Simon & Schuster. Additional tapes from Lyndon Johnson’s Presidency are scheduled to be opened in September. Noon. Theater.

Monday, August 31 - Slide Lecture and Booksigning
Designs for Democracy/Architecture
Architects Steven L. Einhorn, Eric C. Yaffee, and Andrew W. Prescott are the principals who founded the architectural firm Einhorn Yaffee Prescott in 1973. Their federal restoration projects include the Old Executive Office Building, Federal Hall National Memorial, the Memorial Amphitheater in the Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and several U.S. embassies. They will discuss examples of adding to an existing structure and inserting a new building into an existing environment, some of which are illustrated in Architecture as Response: Designing for the Future. Published by Rockport. Noon. Room 105.

For additional PRESS information, please contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (301) 837-1700 or by e-mail.

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