Sept. 29, 2011
The West Virginia Archives and History Library of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History will host its next after-hours lecture from 6 - 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11. The session, titled “Slavery in the Ohio and Kanawha River Valleys: Using Local Primary Sources to Uncover the Past,” will be presented by Dr. Philip Sturm, professor of history at Ohio Valley University (OVU) in Vienna, W.Va.
Sturm plans to have an interactive presentation with lively audience participation. Using primary source materials like slave inventories, slave narratives, estate administration records, and census information, he will pose questions to participants that call for conclusions. He also will provide handouts.
A native of Parkersburg, Sturm holds degrees from Ohio Valley University, Harding University in Searcy, Ark., and West Virginia University, where he earned his doctorate in U.S. history and Appalachian studies. He has been on the faculty at OVU for more than 40 years. Sturm was a James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky in 1987 and a John B. Stephenson Fellow at WVU in 2000. He received summer fellowships from the West Virginia Humanities Council in 1980 and 1991. He was selected as West Virginia Professor of the Year by the Faculty Merit Foundation and as Professor of the Year in 1986, 2001 and 2010 by students at OVU.
Sturm is the author of A River to Cross: The Bicentennial History of Wood County, West Virginia; Wood County Reflections: A Pictorial History and several articles for the West Virginia Encyclopedia.
The lecture will take place in the archives library at the Culture Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. All sessions are free and the public is invited to attend. The library will close at 5 p.m. and reopen at 5:45 p.m., for participants only.
Advance registration for the workshop is not required, but is encouraged. To register in advance, contact Bob Taylor, archives library manager, at (304) 558-0230, ext. 163, or by e-mail at [email protected]. Participants interested in registering by e-mail should send their name, telephone number and the name and date of the session. For additional information about the workshop, contact the Archives and History Library at (304) 558-0230.
The Archives and History Library is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday. The library is closed on Sunday.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts with Kay Goodwin, Cabinet Secretary. The Division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the Division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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