(These are held at the Museum unless otherwise noted. Lectures are free, check with the museum for cost of other programs)
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Lincoln Birthday Ceremony.
Date: Sunday, February 12, 2012. 2:00 p.m. Speaker: Mr. Phil Stone.
For many years a ceremony has been held at the Lincoln Cemetery. The cemetery is in a field next to the old Lincoln Home located six miles north of Harrisonburg on Rt. 42, on the right side of the road. This event is held no matter what the weather is. It is an informal event with the attendees standing around the cemetery as Mr. Stone gives an oral address concering the life of Abraham Lincoln. Parking is along the field and a walk af several hundred yards is required.
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President Lincoln's Rockingham Roots.
Date: Sunday, February 12, 2012. 10:00 a.m. - Opening. The Mostly Forgotten Story of the American Civil War President's Southern Heritage.
This exhibit highlights the President’s connection to his Rockingham roots through his own handwritten letters to his cousin, David Lincoln, at Lacey Spring and through the President’s meeting with Representative J.T. Harris, of Rockingham County, on the eve of the Civil War. It contrasts the dirt floor log cabin of the President’s birth with the stately Lincoln Homestead, built by the President’s great uncle, Jacob Lincoln, still standing on Linville Creek.
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Slavery in the Valley.
Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012. 7:00 p.m. Speaker: Eric Bryan, Deputy Director of the Frontier Culture Museum.
During the 1600s and 1700s, nearly 250,000 Africans were brought to colonial America to serve as enslaved agricultural workers, domestic servants, and artisans. The great majority were members of West African cultures that lived on the Atlantic coast. Their population was highest in South Carolina and Virginia. Beginning in the early 1700s, Virginia tobacco planters imported increasing numbers of captive Africans to work their plantations. Nearly 40% of the Africans imported into Virginia during this time were brought from a part of the West African coast called the Bight of Biafra. Many of these captives were Igbo, a people living in the upland area north of the Bight of Biafra in what is now the nation of Nigeria. The West African Farm represents life in a free Igbo household in the Biafran hinterlands in the 1700s.
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The Rise of the Confederate Sharpshooter.
Date: Saturday, March 10, 2012. 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Mr. Jeremy Hilliard, Living Historian and Preservationist with the 10th VA Vol. Infantry Co.
The presentation will provide an overview of how the Sharpshooters were formed with a focus on their service at the Battle of Cross Keys. Come learn more about the history and tactics of the Special Forces of the Civil War. Noon luncheon followed by lecture. Cost $15.00.
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10th Virginia Infantry Encampment and Spring Drill.
Date: April 14 and 15, 2012. (Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm, Sunday 1 pm - 5 pm) The 10th Virginia Infantry Living Historians return to The Heritage Museum grounds offering an authentic look at 1862 camp life and the 10th Virginia common infantry soldier.
Shenandoah Valley Mountain Music: The Tradition Continues.
Date: Saturday, May 12, 2012. 7:30 p.m. Enjoy the living history of local parlor, campfire, and dance hall music while learning about the key instruments of this musical heritage with music duo Martha & Me.
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Sensation, Science, and Scandal: The Popular Press in Antebellum America.
Date: Thursday, May 17, 2012. 7:00 p.m. Speaker: Professor Mark Sawin.
Dr. Mark Sawin, Professor of History at Eastern Mennonite University, will give a lecture about how other dimensions of the economic, technological, and social changes underway in Antebellum American society manifested themselves in the national culture in surprising ways. The innovations of the mass printing press made possible the first popular newspapers and advertisements (especially in the cities), and fueled an explosion of printed material—from women's sentimental novels to classic works of literature to inflammatory abolitionist tracts. The rapid communication made possible by the telegraph facilitated the advent of mass spectator sports, in which men in saloons hundreds of miles from a horse race or boxing match could receive rapid updates on the progress and outcome. The new practice of photography dazzled Americans everywhere; they sent one another their portraits through the mail, purchased pictures of celebrities, famous political leaders and even erotic nudes, and received photographic evidence of whipped and abused slaves (whether they wanted to see it or not). The patriotic rhetoric championed by Andrew Jackson's administration empowered the common white man to feel as though he was an important part of the political culture. Partisan political machines created by both parties organized huge torchlight parades, transforming political participation into a spectacle of democracy, motivating the highest voter turnouts in American history.
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Civil War Firsts.
Date: Sunday, June 3, 2012. 2:00 p.m. Speakers: Irvin and Nancy Hess.
Income tax, US Secret Service, Home delivery of mail - Irvin and Nancy Hess present a few of the many 'firsts' that came out of the American Civil War.
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Stonewall's Narrow Escape.
Date: Thursday, June 7, 2012. 7:00 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Irvin Hess.
Dr. Irvin Hess will speak on the surprise Federal cavalry raid at the village of Port Republic on the morning of June 8, 1862 that nearly led to the capture of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
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The Civil War According to the Rockingham Register.
Date: Thursday, September 20, 2012. 7:00 p.m. Speaker: Dale MacAllister .
Dale MacAllister examines the Civil War as witnessed by citizens of the Shenandoah Valley and reported by the regional newspaper, The Rockingham Register.
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