FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 3, 2013
LITTLE ROCK – The Old State House Museum will host its annual Civil War seminar, entitled Why Commemorate the Civil War?, on January 28, 2012, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Doors will open at 9:00 am. Admission to the seminar is free but seating is limited; those wishing to attend should call (501) 324-8641 by January 23 to pre-register. This seminar sanctioned by the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.
This year’s speakers and topics include:
• Bill Gurley: “How and Why We Have Commemorated the Civil War in the Past”
• Ronnie A. Nichols: "The Importance of the Sesquicentennial for the African-American Community"
• Dr. William L. Shea: “The Civil War We Have Lost”
Bill Gurley is professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences. Dr. Gurley received his B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Tennessee, a B.S. in Chemistry from Tennessee Technological University, and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Tennessee. He has a keen interest in Civil War history, particularly the war in the Trans-Mississippi. With Cynthia DeHaven Pitcock, he edited I Acted From Principle: The Civil War Diary of Dr. William M. McPheeters, Confederate Surgeon in the Trans-Mississippi (University of Arkansas Press). He has also contributed chapters in for two upcoming publications “Mosby M. Parsons: Missouri’s Forgotten Brigadier,” in Confederate Generals of the Trans-Mississippi Vol. 1 (University of Tennessee Press, 2012); “Mosby M. Parsons: Division Commander, Murder Victim,” in Confederate Generals of the Trans-Mississippi Vol. 2 (University of Tennessee Press, 2013). Current book projects include: Yankee Bullets, Southern Blood: The Remarkable Journal of Dr. Henry M. Dye, and Texas Surgeon in the Civil War and Confederate Grizzly: General Mosby M. Parsons and his Missouri Division. Gurley serves as curator for the Old State House Museum’s series of five Civil War sesquicentennial exhibits including An Enduring Union.
Ronnie A. Nichols is the founder of Nichols Consulting which provides planning, research and technical services in Civil War, military history and African-American history for films, publications, and public programs. A native of Little Rock, Nichols graduated from the University of Arkansas where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in art with a minor in American History. He also holds a Masters in Fine Arts from Otis Arts Institute. Nichols is an alumnus of the W. K. Kellogg National Fellowship Program. His 35-year involvement in the museum field includes serving as: director of audience development at the Arkansas Arts Center, director of the Delta Cultural Center, and director of the Arkansas Commemorative Commission. In 1997, Ronnie organized and founded the Arkansas Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. Nichols also served as a technical advisor on the production of the motion picture Glory, the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first black regiment raised in the North. His work concerning blacks in the Civil War has appeared in U.S. News and World Report, the Civil War Times as well as National Park Service publications. Nichols’ current project is a book entitled, Freedom’s War: Black Soldiers in the Civil War West of the Mississippi River Fighting and Serving in Arkansas, 1862 – 1866, which is to be published in 2013.
Dr. William L. Shea is professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. A native of Louisiana, he has a B.A. from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. from Rice University. Shea has been a Fulbright Scholar in China, a consultant for the National Park Service, and a battlefield guide for the Smithsonian Institution. He is author or co-author of numerous books and articles on American military history, especially the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. His most recent book is Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (University of North Carolina Press). It received the Fletcher Pratt Award of the New York Civil War Round Table for the best book published on the Civil War in 2010, and the J. G. Ragsdale Award of the Arkansas Historical Association for the best book published on Arkansas history that year. Among his other books are Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West (University of North Carolina Press), Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River (University of Nebraska Press), and The Virginia Militia in the Seventeenth Century (Louisiana State University Press).
About the Old State House Museum
The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and shares the goal of all seven Department of Arkansas Heritage agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. The agencies are Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and the Old State House Museum.
-- 30 --