FREE CIVIL WAR BOOK DISCUSSION ON H.W. BRANDS’ 2012 BIOGRAPHY OF ULYSSES GRANT ON FEBRUARY 25, 2014 BY THE OREGON CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL

The folks at the Oregon Civil War Sesquicentennial are holding their February Civil War Book Club discussion on the biography of Ulysses S. Grant by best selling biographer H.W.Brands that was published by Doubleday in December 2012. This book discussion is timely, as Professor Brands (a native of Portland, Oregon) is returning to open the Oregon Historical Society's 2014 Mark O.Hatfield's Distinguished  Historian Forum lecture series on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 where he will talk about what motivated him to write his highly acclaimed biography:"The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace."

The book discussion being led by a panel of experts from the Oregon Civil War 150th will be taking place at the Midland Branch of the Multnomah County Library located at 805 S.E.122nd Avenue (https://multcolib.org/library-location/midland) and is free and open to the public, starting at 7 pm. Free parking is available in the library parking lot and the library is serviced by Trimet.

H.W. Brands is a riveting speaker, and best selling biographer who has written an excellent book about our 18th President, Ulysses S. Grant, who incidentally himself became a resident of Oregon Territory when he first reported for frontier duty at Vancouver Barracks (now known as Fort Vancouver) in September of 1852

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H.W.Brand's lecture on March 4 kicks off the 2014 Hatfield Distinguished Historians Forum lecture series being held by OHS at the First Congregational United Church of Christ located at 1126 SW Park Avenue in Portland, OR starting at 7 pm. Tickets are available at the website BoxOfficeTickets.com or on the Phone: 1-800-494-8497 or 503-715-1114; by Fax: 1-800-329-8497 or mail c/o Box Office Tickets Inc.818 SW 3rd Ave. PMB 213 | Portland, OR 97204-2405

We look forward to seeing you there!

Reflections on the second annual Edward Dickinson Baker Day, and the 203rd Anniversary of the birth of our second United States Senator...

On the second annual Edward Dickinson Baker Day held in Oregon, and the 203rd Anniversary of the birth of our second United States Senator, and as my fellow historians review the reports of 150 years ago; we have become painfully reacquainted with the accumulated high costs (in human lives, broken families, devastated communities, lost artifacts, architecture and art) of the Civil War. Colonel Edward Baker's untimely demise at the Battle of Ball's Bluff on the afternoon of October 21, 1861 took place six months into the first year of the Civil War as General McClellan was still trying to make up for the fiasco of the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) and was in the process of building up the Army of the Potomac for a full-scale incursion into Virginia. 

It is possible that Senator Baker had some presentiment or portent about his death in a future battle as he debated with his colleagues in the Senate chambers on the morning of July 11, 1861 as that august body considered the rate of pay for the Union Volunteers. "...Make war upon a scale as vast as the emergency that calls it forth," said Senator Baker in a quote published during the first session of the Senate in the 37th Congress by the reporters for The Congressional Globe. "Let it be sharp, sudden, bold, determined, forward."

The Senator continued his oration to his spellbound audience. "I believe with most gentlemen that the Union sentiment will yet prevail in the southern States. Bayonets are sharp remedies but they are very powerful. I am one of those who believe that there may be reverses. I am not quite confident that we shall overrun them without severe trials of our courage and patience..." 

Two months and 10 days later, and exactly one month to the day of the Union defeat at Ball's Bluff,  Colonel Edward Baker was in his tent in camp, writing a note of condolence to the mother of another  fallen Oregonian, Captain James W. Lingenfelter. Lingenfelter had practiced law in Jacksonville, Oregon, as a graduate of New York University who had come to the Pacific coast following  the lure of the California gold fields before settling down in Oregon. When Baker formed the 1st California Regiment in June of 1861, Lingenfelter promptly enlisted and mustered in as the Captain of Company B, a position he held until he was killed by a rebel sharpshooter while on picket duty. One score and 10 days later would find Oregon bereft of its own leading statesman, orator and warrior. As the Senator was laid at rest  on his own funeral bier,surrounded by his grieving family and friends (including his best friend Lincoln) Baker's death became a mournful harbinger of the carnage and tragedies yet to come.

To honor the life and achievements of Senator Edward Dickinson Baker, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber signed Senate Bill 809 into law on May 19, 2011, designating every February 24 as Edward Dickinson Baker Day in Oregon. Thanks to the efforts and testimonies of lobbyist Greg Leo, members of the Oregon Sons of Union Veterans, Baker Camp 6, PSU Vice Provost Mike Burton, distinguished Lincoln actor and playwright Steve Holgate, the Oregon Civil War 150th and Oregon Lincoln Bicentennial Commissioner K.C. Piccard,our Oregon State Legislators and others, this honor to our fallen pioneer/statesman/warrior became a reality. Requiesat en pace, Colonel Baker!

Movie review:Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" (2012)

"Lincoln" is finally hitting the big screens across Oregon today as director Steven Spielberg's  historical dramatic paean  to the political genius of our 16th President  ends its twelve year odyssey through numerous recastings, film delays  and three writers. 
 

After an auspicious limited release in only seven locations across the nation, (Seattle and Los Angeles were the only West Coast cities included in the preview) the movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis in the titular role pulled in over $944,308 or $85,846 per screen according to Indiewire.com. “Lincoln” now has to prove that it can bring in the audiences during the domestic (USA and Canada) general release starting this week and in the various 2013 overseas releases starting with Chile on January 3 and continuing through the April 2013 release in Japan. The critics and early preview audiences are raving about the movie calling it "Oscar-worthy" on many levels. 

Although Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is loosely based upon seventy-one pages of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s 2005 best seller Team of Rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln; the movie only covers the last few months of Lincoln’s Presidency, starting with events in January 1865 and ending with his assassination. 

Even with this “snapshot in time,” two-time Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis works wonders in his reverential portrayal of our 16th President, using the president’s familiar mannerisms, actual quotes from letters and eyewitness accounts and regional vocal inflections to convincing fill out the role of the man who saved the Union. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who spoke about her book Team of Rivals at the Oregon Historical Society’s Hatfield lecture in Feb 2009, declared in a recent interview that the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis was nothing short of miraculous. “Here I was imagining him (Lincoln) for decades…and suddenly he comes to life, “she said. 

“Lincoln” has been gaining momentum ever since the surprise premiere of the movie at the New York Film Festival back on October 8. It comes as no surprise that a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, using a screenplay written by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tony Kushner ("Angels in America") paired with the lush cinematography of Janusz Kaminski and accompanied by the evocative soundtrack of composer John Williams with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra would immediately attract the attention of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences 

  
 The movie  was filmed on a budget of 65 million dollars, and at the movie preview I attended on Nov 1; it is evident that no expenses were spared in the production. From the period costumes (including Thaddeus Steven’s irregular hairpiece) to the White House and Congressional chambers sets to the recreation of the war telegraph office down to the desk where Lincoln read the transcribed letters from his generals (the location where in October 1861, the grief-stricken president first learned of the death of his friend, Oregon Senator Edward Dickinson Baker at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff) and the Petersen House death scene, authenticity is present in every detail. 

Opening with the trademark Spielbergian  battle scene and its aftermath, "Lincoln" has a brief, near-hagiographic moment as the President visits the encampment to talk to his troops, including veterans of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Kushner’s dramaturgical hallmark becomes apparent, as Lincoln humbly ponders the meaning to the Greek chorus-like recitation of his Gettysburg Address as memorized by war weary soldiers. The stage is thus set for the final weeks of the Civil War, and includes Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address: "With malice toward none; with charity for all." 

The main focus of "Lincoln" is on the struggle (depicted in the tones of a political thriller) to amass the votes needed to pass the 13th Amendment in Congress to forever abolish slavery. The movie continues on a somber note with the surrender at Appomattox, swiftly followed by Lincoln’s inevitable martyrdom at the hands of assassin John Wilkes Booth. 

The expertly staged recreation of the Second Battle of Fort Fisher (where Oregonian and Civil War Naval hero Roswell Lamson was grievously wounded) brings much needed attention to the January 1865 joint assault by Union Army and naval forces against the military installation, outside Wilmington, North Carolina. The action battle scenes allow Spielberg to display on a smaller scale, his mastery in depicting the universal horrors of war that were major parts of “Saving Private Ryan” and “War Horse.” 

For all the inspirational scenes and historic events and insights that “Lincoln” delivers, there are a few errors and omissions, and that is to be expected in a movie with a running time of over two hours and thirty minutes. In at least two areas, “Lincoln” falls short of fulfilling Spielberg's intent to provide a balanced historical view of the times. 

The promise of the movie’s second scene with Lincoln actively listening to the justifiable complaints of two USCT soldiers about inequalities in pay and promotions soon gives way in the remainder of the movie to the long corrected yet persistent stereotypes showing African Americans as not taking an active part in securing their own freedom. 

Gloria Reuben as the First Lady's dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley has a symbolic expository conversation about the prospect of life after Emancipation with the President in one scene, but William Slade (as played by Steven McKinney Henderson) is restricted to the role of an (almost) invisible servant. A larger effort should have been devoted to depicting Lincoln’s relationship with black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, or with a visit by Lincoln to one of the federal contraband camps set up in the Washington City environs. 

The movie also continues the tradition of unfavorably stereotyping First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (as portrayed by Sally Fields). It’s ironic that a movie based upon Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, neglects to take an actual page from that playbook where in the chapter entitled “We are in the Depths”, Goodwin describes in detail how it was the custom of the First Lady to bring a carriage full of “baskets of fruit, food and fresh flowers” on her visits to the sick and wounded soldiers languishing in Washington’s government hospitals. 

 Goodwin describes  a typical visit by Mary as a part of her own personal war relief efforts. After distributing lemons and oranges as a prevention for scurvy, Mrs. Lincoln “sat by the side of lonely soldiers, talked with them about their experiences, read to them and helped them write letters to their families at home.” According to Goodwin, “Mary decided to carry on her work discretely…” so as to avoid disrupting the already harried routine of the hospitals. 

Even Lincoln’s assistant secretary William Osborn Stoddard noted Mary’s frequent preparations “for her regular round of hospital visits” and wondered at her refusal to inform the press about her work behind the scenes. “This, more than anything,"  Stoddard surmised, would “sweeten the contents of many journals” including the New York Independent that was described as being “relentless in its attacks upon Mary.” 

The big, all-star cast in "Lincoln" includes David Strathairn as William Seward, Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Lincoln, and Bruce McGill as Edwin Stanton. Jared Harris stars as Ulysses S. Grant and Christopher Boyer as Robert E. Lee. Other members of the cast include Gulliver McGrath as Tad Lincoln, James Spader as W.N. Bilbo, Lee Pace as Fernando Wood, Richard Topol as James Speed, and S. Epatha Merkerson as Lydia Smith. "Lincoln" has the unique distinction of being the only movie in history to include in its cast two actors besides Daniel Day-Lewis, who can include the line “experience in portraying Abraham Lincoln” in their resumes. 

Veteran character actor Hal Holbrook is featured in the role of Francis Preston Blair in “Lincoln” and he won an Emmy for his portrayal of President Lincoln in the 1974 miniseries of the same name. Holbrook’s version of Lincoln was also added to the cast of another mini-series “North and South” which aired in two parts in 1985 and 1986. David Strathairn, the actor playing Secretary of State Seward in “Lincoln” portrayed the 16th President in the 2008 stage production of Norman Corwin’s “The Rivalry”- a play based upon the Lincoln-Douglas debates. 

Lincoln is being distributed through Touchstone, and according to the website Fandango.com, the earliest opening day showings of “Lincoln” in Portland on the morning of November 16 take place at 10:15 am at the Century Clackamas Town Center and Century 16 Eastport Plaza theaters and at the Regal Bridgeport Village Stadium 18 and Imax starting at 10:30am. ” 

"Lincoln" is rated PG-13 for an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language. For more information on Lincoln movie times and locations check out the movie listing web page at OregonLive.com or at the fandango.com website for location and times and to purchase and print out your tickets for “Lincoln 

The International "Lincoln" trailer shows more in-depth clips of the movie

15 Oregonians will participate at the Pacific Northwest History Conference being held in Tacoma from October 19-20, 2012

Pacific Northwest History Conference 2012

As of October 16, 2012; the conference schedule lists fifteen Oregonians who are involved in the Pacific Northwest History Conference 2012 entitled “Civil War to Civil Rights”  All sessions are taking place at the Washington State History Museum, 1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma.  This report lists only the Oregonian historians who are presenters, or facilitators at the scheduled sessions.

The presenters and facilitators include, Jeffrey Sawyer from Western Oregon University, Dr. Ethan Johnson from Portland State University, independent historians Dr. Tanya Lyn March, Felicia Williams and Maija Anderson, Professor emeritus Dick Etulain from the University of New Mexico (resides in Oregon), Professor Emeritus  Tom Edwards from Whitman College.  Richard Wandschneider, the Director of Josephy Library of Western History and Culture at Fishtrap, Enterprise, Oregon;  Independent Historian Karen Mirador, Willamette University Associate Professor of History  Jennifer Jopp, F. William Krone from the Oregon Civil War Sesquicentennial Commissioner, Assistant Professor of History Stacey Smith from Oregon State University,  Oregon Historical Quarterly Editor Eliza Canty-Jones, Jackie Hedlund Tyler from Washington State University, Ken Coleman from Portland State University, and independent historian R. Gregory Nokes.

Friday, October 19, 2012–First Day of Conference

2:00 p.m.- 3:30 p.m.

Breakout Session A—   Topic: Activists in Civil Rights ·          Jeffrey Sawyer, MA, from Western Oregon University, will present “Oregon’s Progressive Era Debate on Capital Punishment.” ·          Dr. Ethan Johnson, Associate Professor, Portland State University, College of Letters and Science, Black Studies Department “The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Oregon: Its Successes and Challenges.”

Breakout Session  C   Topic: Oregon Activists For Civil Rights

·          Dr. Tanya Lyn March, Independent Historian

“The Northwest Kittredge Viaduct: the built expression of a community’s determination to cross the tracks.”

·          Felicia Williams, Independent Historian

“NAACP Public Housing and Presidential Politics in Portland Oregon.”

·          Maija Anderson, Head, Historical Collections & Archives and Assistant Professor, Oregon Health & Science University

“The Health Care Dimension of Civil Rights in Portland.”

Breakout Session D—  Topic: Soldiers and Politicians in the Civil War

·          Dr. Richard W. Etulain, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico

“Anson G. Henry: Abraham Lincoln’s Political Doctor in the Oregon County.”

·          Dr. Glenn Thomas Edwards, Professor of History Emeritus, Whitman College

“Three Duties Facing Pacific Northwest Soldiers.”

3:45-5:15pm

Breakout Session E--

·          Richard Wandschneider, Director of Josephy Library of Western History and Culture at Fishtrap, Enterprise, Oregon

“Invisible Indians: Civil Rights and the Civil War.”

3:45-5:15pm

Breakout Session F—Topic:  Civil War Connections

·          Karen Meador, Independent Historian

“An Unlikely Champion: Jefferson Davis and the Pacific Northwest

                                                                (continued on page 2)

Saturday October 20, 2012 —Second Day of Conference—All Sessions at the Washington State History Museum

9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

Break Out Session F      Topic: Civil War Biography

·          Jennifer Jopp, Assistant Professor of History, Department of History, Willamette University

“John Beeson and His Contemporaries: A Call to Conscience.”

·           F. William Krone, Oregon Civil War Sesquicentennial Commissioner. “Civil War Figures and the Overlooked Relationships to the Northwest.”

10:40 a.m.-1:00 p.m. PLENARY/ LUNCH DAVID BLIGHT—CONFERENCE ATTENDEES LUNCH ON THEIR OWN IN AFFINITY GROUPS

1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Breakout Session J—Chair: Eliza Canty-Jones, Editor, Oregon Historical Quarterly;

Comment by Dr. Stacey Smith, Assistant Professor of History, Oregon State University

                                                                       

TOPIC: Oregon Slavery and Exclusion

·          Jacki Hedlund Tyler, Washington State University

“Excluded Oregonians: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the Oregon Immigration Restriction.”

·          Ken Coleman, Portland State University, MA

“’Dangerous Subjects’: Black Exclusion and the Anxiety of Conquest in the Willamette Valley.”

·          R. Gregory Nokes, Independent Historian “Holmes vs. Ford, 1853: Oregon Slavery on Trial.”

1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Breakout Session K—Chair: Dr. Jeffrey Sanders, Assistant Professor of History, Washington State University

Topic: Seattle Civil Rights

·          Dr. Robert Donnelly, Associate Professor, Gonzaga University

“Dave Beck, ‘Mr. Seattle’: Missteps”

·          Jessica Shoemaker, Mt. Spokane High School, Spokane “‘Awakening the Child to Cultural Values’: Alternative Education Programs in Civil Rights Era Seattle.” Dr. Dale Soden, Professor of History, Whitworth University “Prophets in the Wilderness: Samuel McKinney and John H. Adams and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Seattle During the 1960s.”

1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Breakout Session L-- Chair: Charles LeWarne, Independent Historian

Civil War and Civil Rights Biography

·          Nancy A. Bunker, Associate Professor, Whitworth University

“George Washington, Father of Centralia: A journey from free Black to town builder.”

·          Ed Diaz, Independent Historian, President of the Association for African American Historical Research and Preservation (AAAHRP)

“Horace Roscoe Cayton and the William Meredith Scandal: It Happened in Seattle.”

·          Dr. Michael J. Herschensohn, Independent Historian

“Seattle’s James Washington, Jr., Sculptor and Civil Rights Leader of the African-American Diaspora.”

Listings are subject to change 

The Oregon Lincoln Bicentennial Commissioner in me can't wait for the release of Spielberg's "Lincoln" In November 2012

I was perusing through my usual morning update from the Guardian.UK on Facebook, and caught the very positive first reviews of Steven Spielberg's new movie on "Lincoln" starring Academy-award winner Daniel Day-Lewis at the secret screening at the New York film festival last night.

The long-awaited biopic of our 16th President will hit the big screens across the country on Friday, November 16, 2012 after making its World Premiere on the closing night film of American Film Institute's (AFI) FEST 2012.  The gala screening event will take place on Thursday, November 8 at the Historic Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California and will feature the stars, director Spielsberg, writer Tony Kushner and most probably historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the book "Team of Rivals" that was the basis for most of the screenplay. This makes me long for the days when I lived in next to Tinsel town and my radio show was my pass to the aforementioned screening events...

It didn't seem that long ago (2009) when I and my fellow Oregon Lincoln Bicentennial Commissioners were sitting  in the audience waiting for the start of  the Mark O. Hatfield Historians Forum  featuring Ms. Goodwin and her best-selling book on Lincoln and his cabinet. While waiting for the lights to be dimmed, we speculated  about the news at that time from Hollywood about Spielberg's selection of Liam Neeson to portray Lincoln; then we went on to spend   a very entertaining evening with Ms. Goodwin. The diminutive historian regaled us with tales about her work writing biographies, her days when she assisted President Lyndon B.  Johnson during the last year of his administration and her later assistance of Johnson with his memoirs,   her family's love of baseball and her early school days in parochial school. 

I remember spending a few minutes talking with her at the post-lecture reception held in the atrium of the Oregon History Museum, and asking her what were Lincoln’s greatest strengths and weaknesses? She told my group that some of Lincoln’s greatest strengths would sometimes become his greatest weaknesses. For example: Lincoln's ability to extend forgiveness. Lincoln was willing to give people a second or even third chance; it was a strength that allowed Lincoln to transcend the slights he may have received at the hands of his cabinet members and advisers and to fully utilize their talents in running the country and restoring the Union.

However, this strength also turned into a liability, especially where Union Major General McClellan was concerned. Until McClellan was finally "fired" after the September 1862 Battle of Antietam, "Little Mac” was allowed to continue as general-in-chief of the Union Army even though he missed many opportunities to engage with the enemy and to take full advantage of the winning tide in Union victories, instead using the excuse of being outnumbered by the Confederate troops, or that his horses were tired.

Conversely, Lincoln could also hold a life-long grudge...it destroyed his relationship with his own father, Thomas. Lincoln never forgave Thomas Lincoln for mistreating him when he was growing up and for erroneously considering his son's quest for knowledge as a sign of laziness. When the elder Lincoln was on his deathbed, Abraham could not put aside his anger towards his father and subsequently didn’t make the trip home to pay his respects. Lincoln was human, after all.

According to early reviews of the movie, which was filmed over ten months at an estimated cost of $50,000,000; the Lincolnphiles and Civil War history buffs will find much to admire in "Lincoln." The movie is not a rehash of a "Gods and Generals" type of Civil War action-pic, with cutaways to Lincoln-in-his-war-room type of a movie. According to Jonathan Crow of "Movie Talk", Lincoln "centers on the last few months of the president's life when he managed to get the 13th amendment passed, which outlawed slavery, during the waning days of the Civil War... star Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a masterful, mesmerizing performance...and is now no doubt a front-runner for the best-actor Oscar…”

Tony Kushner spent six years working on the film as the writer for "Lincoln", and according to the critics, the script shows the hallmark of the playwright well-known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America,” This is the second time Kushner has worked with Spielberg after last writing “Munich.”  The music for “Lincoln” was composed by Academy Award winning John Williams, and an “Oscar-vibe” is out already about the performances of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy-Lee Jones.  

The roster of stars includes Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones as Republican Thaddeus Stevens, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln and David Strathaim as Secretary of State William Seward, Bruce McGill as Edwin Stanton and Jared Harris as Ulysses S. Grant.  Also appearing are Gloria Reuben, John Hawkes, Jackie Earle Healey, S. Epatha Merkerson, Tim Blake Nelson, Lee Pace, James Spader, and Michael Stuhlbarg. Spielberg’s first choice to play Lincoln, Liam Neeson, dropped out of the project around 2010, and was recorded on a British morning television show as saying “ I was attached to it for a while, but it's now -- I'm past my sell-by date."  The 6 foot four Neeson just turned 60 on July 7, 2012; and felt that he was probably too old (and conversely, too robust)  to portray the “rail-thin” president, who was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at the age of 56.

Even though the movie “Lincoln” wasn’t ready in time for the national celebration of the 200^th Anniversary of President Lincoln’s birthday back in 2009; Spielberg’s film biography of our beloved 16^th President is bound to be the cinematic centerpiece of the ongoing national and Oregon Civil War 150^th Anniversary commemorative activities.

To read the Guardian on Facebook review of the movie “Lincoln”, go to this link: https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/film/2012/oct/09/lincoln-review-spielberg-day-lewis?post_gdp=true

To read about Liam Neeson’s remarks about leaving the production of Lincoln, check out this link: http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/actor-almost-played-abraham-lincoln-180925344.html

K.C. Piccard invited to join expert panel on Louisa May Alcott and "Women and War" on Nov 16, 2011 at the Multnomah County Library

I have been invited to take part in the "Women and War" panel discussion taking place at the downtown branch of the Multnomah County Library on Tuesday, November 15, starting at 6:00pm in the U.S. Bank room. This is part of the excellent program the Multnomah County Library has presented on Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women..." a series of readings, viewings, discussions and events celebrating the life works and times of Louisa May Alcott" When I was President of the Friends of History at Portland State University I researched Louisa May Alcott's many contributions to the war effort, and the works of the unsung heroes (like Louisa) of the Civil War: the thousands of women nurses who tended to the Civil War wounded.

The panel members I will be joining includes Nancy Sloan, the Women Veterans Program Manager at the V.A. Hospital; who will talk about working with today's women veterans; and PSU Associate Professor Patricia Schechter, author of a biography on Ida B Wells-Barnett and American Reform, who is also involved with the Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote project, and other periods of Oregon women's history.

The moderator will be PSU English Professor Maude Hines, who received her Ph.D. in Literature from Duke University in 1998, along with graduate certification in African-American Studies and Women's Studies. Her published work includes articles on Philip Pullman, Alice Walker and Paule Marshall, Ecocriticism in Children's Literature, and Louisa May Alcott.

The panel is part of the Library's current program on "Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women" that is a series of readings, viewings of the documentary film Louisa May Alcott, The Woman Behind Little Women, , discussions and events that has celebrated the life, works and times of Louisa May Alcott throughout November 2011.

It is fitting that this panel takes place a fortnight from the 179th Anniversary of the birthday of writer, ardent abolitionist, womens suffrage and Civil War nurse Louisa May Alcott will take place on November 29. This program is part of Oregon's participation in the National Civil War Sesquicentennial observances.

Made possible with funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities Fund of the Library Foundation. Sponsors include American Library Association, Portland State University.