2007 Conference

Washington Studies Conference


34th Annual Conference on Washington, D.C. Historical Studies November 1 - 3, 2007

Presented by: D.C. Public Library, Washingtoniana Division
George Washington University
The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Location: The Carnegie, 801 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C.


The 2007 Conference was very successful and included over 500 participants!

The Conference provides a forum for presentations on Washington history by participants from a variety of backgrounds, including scholars, students, planners, community activists and archivists. Audience participation and dialogue is highly valued and encouraged with a time for questions and answers at the end of each session.

The Conference is free and open to the public. Please click here to register online and pay by credit card for lunch or tours. If you wish to pay by check, please print and mail the registration form with your check payable to "HSW" and mail to The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., 801 K Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, Attention: 07 Conference.

The theme of the 2007 Conference is "Empowerment" chosen to link the District efforts to explore and commemorate the events of the year 1968, which altered the face of the city. The Conference will convene on Thursday evening, November 1, with a reception at The Carnegie, followed by the annual Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture. Panel presentations will be scheduled for Friday and Saturday. A "History Network" event will be held during the Friday noon hour promoting the efforts of local organizations working in the areas of preservation, neighborhood history, genealogy, and other specialized interest areas.

The first conference took place in 1973 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library and was sponsored by the Columbia Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) and the George Washington University. In the tenth year, the Washingtoniana Division of the D.C. Public Library joined as the third co-sponsor of the Conference. The Conference is now in its thirty-fourth year, making it older that the District's limited home rule government.

2007 Conference Sponsors:

D.C. Public Library

    * Washingtoniana Division

George Washington University

    * Gelman Library Special Collections

Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Humanities Council of Washington, D.C.

Rainbow History Project



2007 Washington Studies Conference Program

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1
 
6:00 p.m.     Welcoming Reception
34th Annual Washington Studies Conference
 
7:00 p.m.     Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture
Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy
 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2

 
9:30 a.m. PLENARY SESSION: Politics & Public Education in the Nation's Capital
Jennings Wagoner, University of Virginia
Cosby Hunt, Lincoln / Bell Multicultural High School
 
11:00 a.m. SESSION: At Home in Washington - Consumer Culture, Holiday Habits
"Colored Washington on Holiday"
Patsy Fletcher, Independent Historian
"Craps & Whist; Juke Joints & Charity Balls: Class and Leisure in Black Washington
Adia H. Phillips, M.A. Candidate, American University

SESSION: Money, Land, and Power
"Capital Investment: Real Estate Speculation in the District of Columbia, 1790-1830"
Dana Stefanelli, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Virginia
"Alexander R. Shepherd - His Times and Ours"
John Richardson, Independent Researcher
"The Clerk, the Ambassador, and the Insurance Man: Building D.C. Stadium, 1960-1"
Brett L. Abrams, Ph.D., Independent Scholar

SESSION: Washington, D.C.: Architecture of Contrast
Latrobe Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians,
Moderator: Tim Kerr
"An Insider's View: Sculpture and Sculptors of the Washington National Cathedral"
Andy Seferlis, Restorationist
"A Presbyterian ‘Cathedral'?: Congregational Space and Civic Space in the National Presbyterian Church"
David Bains, Stamford University
"The Statler Hotel (Capital Hilton): A Modern Hotel for World War II-Era Washington, D.C."
Lisa Davidson, Architectural Historian, HABS / HAER
"Philip Johnson in the Nation's Capital: Shaping a Modernism in a Classical City"
Karin Alexis, Art and Architectural Historian

SESSION: DC in Motion
"Dance Party: The Teenarama Story" Screening and Discussion
Beverly Lindsay-Johnson, filmmaker

SESSION: Walking Tour - "Convention Center & Shaw"
Jeanne Fogle, A Tour de Force
 
12:00 p.m. History Network
Matthew Gilmore, Coordinator
 
12:45 - 3:30  DC MOVIES
Coordinator: Jeff Krulik, Filmmaker
"This is Duckpin Country"; "Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9";From
Here to Obscurity: The "Best" of Travesty Films"; George Merriken Home
Movies; "Theatre Dark"; DC Treasures from the National Archives;
1968-1970 Local Newscasts thanks to Richard Nixon; AND MORE.
 
2:00 p.m.     SESSION: History and Archeology at Walter Pierce Park
"History Underfoot in Walter Pierce Park"
Eddie Becker and Mary Belcher, Neighborhood Historians
"The Colored Union Benevolent Association: Who Were They?"
Mary Belcher
"Remembering D.C.'s Colored Union Benevolent Association"
Mark Mack, Interim Curator, W. Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Lab, Howard University

SESSION: City Divided by Race
"No Black Baseball at the White House: Gradual Segregation of Public Space
during Reconstruction"
Ryan Swanson, Ph.D. Candidate, Georgetown University
"Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in Washington, D.C., 1900-1918"
Rebecca Wieters, Ph.D. Program, University of Maryland

SESSION: Public Violence in D.C.
Moderator: Maurice Jackson, Georgetown University
"Francis Scott Key and the Snow Riot"
Jefferson Morley, Journalist
"Capture of The Pearl and Washington's Anti-Abolitionist Mob"
Josephine Pacheco, Professor Emerita, George Mason University
"1919"
David Krugler, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin
"1968"
Dana Schaffer, Gilder Lehrman Center, Yale University

SESSION: Walking Tour - Mount Vernon Sq and Massachusetts Ave
Jeanne Fogle, A Tour de Force
 
3:45 p.m. SESSION: Designs for Washington
"Capital Craftsman: John Skirving in Washington"
David S. Rotenstein, Independent Scholar
"Rethinking L'Enfant in the Twentieth Century: The Justement-Smith Plan for Southwest Washington"
Catherine W. Zipf, Assistant Professor, Salve Regina University
"Urban Redevelopment in Southwest D.C."
Richard W. Longstreth, Professor, George Washington University

SESSION: Dance Lesson: The Art of DC Hand Dance
Lawrence Bradford, CEO and Master Instructor, Smooth & EZ Hand Dance Institute of Washington

SESSION: "Singing in the Background: African American Opera in Early Twentieth Century Washington"
Moderator: Jim Weaver, National Music Center
"The National Negro Opera Company"
Samuel J. Perryman, Library of Congress
"The Life of Madame Lillian Evanti"
Eric Ledell Smith, Associate Historian, State Museum of Pennsylvania
"The Evans-Tibbs Collection"
Jennifer Morris, Anacostia Museum

SESSION: Walking Tour: Seventh Street & Chinatown

Jeanne Fogle, A Tour de Force
 
5:30 p.m.     Music of 60s Washington
Donal Leace, Musician
 
6:00 p.m.  PLENARY SESSION: Memory: 1968
Moderator: Jerry Phillips
Marshall Brown
Tony Gittens
Lawrence Guyot
Bob King
Donal Leace
Larry Rosen
Anwar Saleem
Frank Smith, Jr.
And the Audience
 
Saturday, November 3, 2007
 
9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.  DC MOVIES
Coordinator: Jeff Krulik, Filmmaker
"This is Duckpin Country"; "Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9";From Here to Obscurity: The "Best" of Travesty Films"; George Merriken Home Movies; "Theatre Dark"; DC Treasures from the National Archives; 1968-1970 Local Newscasts thanks to Richard Nixon; AND MORE.
 
9:30 a.m.     SESSION: D.C. History Resources Update: Precious Places / Endangered Places
"Lessons from Katrina: A Field Wide Response"
Carma C. Fauntleroy, Museums Consultant
"Update: Eastern Market"
Donna Scheeder, Chairman, Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee
"Update: Georgetown Library & the Peabody Room"
Mark Greek, DCPL Photo Archivist and Georgetown Salvage Coordinator
"Update: Congressional Cemetery at 200"
Sandy Schmidt, Congressional Cemetery Archivist

SESSION: "Teaching with Historic Places: All Souls' Unitarian Universalist Church & Heurich House"
Moderator: Kathleen Franz, Dir of Public History, American Univ
Presenters: Allison Boals, Courtney Esposito, Amy Johnson, Lindsay Flanagan, Cigdem Pael; American University Public History Graduate Programs

SESSION: D.C.'s Citizen Organizers

"The Voice of the Voteless": The Voteless D.C. League of Women Voters’ Campaigns for Suffrage,
National Representation, and Home Rule, 1917-1941"
Katharina Hering, George Mason University
"Parent Organizing for Equity in the D.C. Public Schools"
Jenice L. View, Assistant Professor, George Mason University

SESSION: Workshop: "Beginners’ Guide to Research in HSW’s Kiplinger Research Library"
Yvonne Carignan, Director, Kiplinger Research Library
 
11:15 a.m. SESSION: Round Table: Civil Rights, Home Rule, and the Struggle for Political Autonomy in D.C.
Moderator: Courtland Milloy, Washington Post
Presenters:
Michael Fauntroy, George Mason University, and author, Home Rule or House Rule
Rebecca Kingsley, Filmmaker, The Last Colony
Sam Smith, Progressive Review

SESSION: Round Table: : "Archives, oral History, and Digital Technology: Using Area Resources to Produce a Documentary on Anti-Vietnam War Activism"
Moderator: Kenneth Woodard, Social Studies Chair, Connelly School of the Holy Child
Presenters: Claire DeLaurentis, Sasha Hamilton-Cotter, Kourtney Lyons, Colleen Ring; Students, Connelly School of the Holy Child

SESSION: Workshop: "Preserving Family and Community Heritage"
Don Williams, Senior Conservator, Smithsonian Institution
 
1:15 p.m. SESSION: "D.C. On Stage: DreamCity Theatre Group - Performance and Discussion"

DreamCity Troupe
John Muller, Executive Director, DreamCity

SESSION: Insurgencies: D.C.’s Prisons

SESSION: Filming the City
Presenters:
Robert Uth, New Voyage Communications
Glenn Marcus, Producer
 
3:00 p.m. SESSION: D.C. Style: A Salute to the Reporters Who Chronicled Real Washington Society & Fashion
Moderator: Rosemary Reed

SESSION: Psychedelic DC: Live at the Ambassador Theater
Moderator: Jeff Krulik, Filmmaker
Presenters:
Annie Groer, Washington Post
Richard Harrington, Washington Post
Mike Schreibman, President, Washington Area Musicians Association
 

©2004 The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

   

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