Chamberlain Legacy Lecture: "Who shall tell what is past & what survives?"

4 Noble Street,Brunswick ME 04011

10 September, 2021

Description

The inaugural Chamberlain Legacy Lecture explores the modern rise of Chamberlain’s legend and ponders his relevance today. JOIN US FOR THIS JOSHUA L. CHAMBERLAIN MUSEUM FUNDRAISER & 193rd JLC BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION--THERE'LL BE CAKE! Keynote Address by Kanisorn “Kid” Wongsrichanalai, Ph.D., Director of Research at Massachusetts Historical Society, and alumnus of Bowdoin College In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ken Burns’s PBS Series, The Civil War, and the film Gettysburg (based on Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 novel The Killer Angels) set off a wave of excitement and interest in the War of the Rebellion that captivated the nation. Both of these modern representations of the war also drew attention to a local Maine hero whose name was little known outside the Pine Tree State: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. This story of the college professor-turned soldier whose tenacity saved the United States Army at the Battle of Gettysburg made Chamberlain a national hero almost overnight. In him, audiences saw the North’s answer to the better-known legends of the Confederacy. When historians started paying attention to Chamberlain, however, they quickly discovered that he was a much more complicated figure than his legend would have it. In an age when 19th century heroes, with their deeply flawed beliefs and worldviews, are being recast, can a character like Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain still remain relevant? This talk will explore the modern rise of Chamberlain’s legend and ponder what this college professor might still teach us today. Dr. Wongsrichanalai is the author of Northern Character: College-educated New Englanders, Honor, Nationalism, and Leadership in the Civil War Era and co-editor of So Conceived and So Dedicated: Intellectual Life in the Civil War-era North. He earned his B.A. from Bowdoin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. “I am deeply honored and humbled,” says Dr. Wongsrichanalai. “I became an historian because of Joshua Chamberlain. I went to Bowdoin because of Joshua Chamberlain. To be asked to deliver the inaugural Chamberlain Legacy Lecture is truly a profound honor.” A dessert reception follows the keynote. Tours at the Chamberlain Museum the weekend of the lecture are free. A walking tour of “Chamberlain’s Bowdoin,” conducted by Bowdoin College historian John Cross, takes place on Sunday, September 12 at 1:30. Pejepscot History Center is a non-profit, educational organization charged with preserving the collective heritage of Brunswick, Harpswell, and Topsham. The Society owns and operates the Joshua L. Chamberlain House Museum and the Skolfield-Whittier House, both of which are open to the public Memorial Day-Columbus Day. For further information please call the Center at 207.729.6606 or find us at www.pejepscothistorical.org.