Virtual speaker series to feature presentations by authors and researchers

Dr. Lonnie H. Lee visiting Cozes, France, the childhood hometown of John Bertrand and Charlotte Jolly Bertrand. Lee will present “Belle Isle, the Bertrand Family, and the Huguenot-Anglican Refuge in Early Virginia” on Thursday, April 1. Photo courtesy of Lonnie H. Lee

The Lancaster Virginia Historical Society (LVHS) recently announced “Zooming In On Local History: Virtual Speaker Series II,” featuring a second round of seven presentations by authors, researchers and historians.

The programs will be presented via Zoom at 3 p.m. on select Thursdays and will be available later as recordings, reported executive director Karen Hart. Each program will be about an hour long and will include visual slides and the opportunity for interactive questions with the speaker.

 “Our first series of virtual talks that ran from last November to this February was so successful and well-received that we are thrilled to keep the format going with additional programs for a second series,” said Hart.

“The online format has been an excellent way for us to continue our educational mission of sharing local history and to showcase the amazing knowledge and research work of our own historical society members and academic partners,” she said. “Thanks to The Nettie Lokey Wiley & Charles L. Wiley Foundation and The Jessie Ball duPont Fund for grant funding to help with technology costs, we can offer these programs very affordably for viewers.”

 Access to each program is free for members and $5 for others. LVHS membership is $35 for an individual or $60 for a couple.

Register for upcoming programs or past recordings at www.mkt.com/maryball or 462-7280.

The series will include:

  • April 1, “Belle Isle, the Bertrand Family, and the Huguenot-Anglican Refuge in Early Virginia,” by Dr. Lonnie H. Lee.
  • April 22, “Courthouses and Court Day in Colonial Virginia,” by Dr. Carl Lounsbury.
  • May 13, “Black Voices—Men at Work in the Lower Northern Neck in the mid-1900s,” by LVHS researchers featuring audio clips from the Closing the Gap African American Oral History Collection.
  • June 3, “Towles Family Tales and Growing up in Rural Lancaster County in the 1950s-60s,” by William H. Towles Jr.
  • June 24, “History and Restoration at Enon Hall, the Hathaway Ancestral Home established in 1762,” by William Hathaway Chapman and Gay Chapman.
  • July 15, “The James Wharton Films—An Enduring Record of Northern Neck Life in the 1920s-30s,” by Joni Carter.
Rivah Visitor's Guide Staff
Rivah Visitor's Guide Staff
The Rivah Visitor’s Guide provides information about places to go and things to do throughout the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay region, from the York River to the Potomac River.

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