Alexandria Historical Society Lecture

Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 7:30 pm
The Lyceum, 201 South Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia

ENGLISH FACES: VIRGINIA PLACES
By James C. Kelly, Ph.D

Dr. Kelly will be presenting  “English Faces: Virginia Places”, a light, anecdotal talk about the royals for whom Virginia counties are named.

Did you know that Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg is named for the last of Queen Anne's 17 children, all of whom died before her, although she was only 47?  Did you know that Caroline County is named for a queen who took pleasure in death because she never would have to see her eldest son again?  Fredericksburg and Frederick County are named for him.  Did you know that Prince William County is named for a prince remembered by the Scots as the "Butcher of Culloden"?  Discover the English roots of the names of many of Virginia's towns and counties in this illustrated talk by Dr. James C. Kelly. 

James C. Kelly, a native of Philadelphia, received his Ph.D. in history from Vanderbilt University. At the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, Kelly was Chief of Research (1977-80), then Director of Collections and Chief Curator (1980-89).  From 1990 to 2010 he served as Director of Museums at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond.  In August 2010 he was named Chief of Museums Programs for the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. 

Dr. Kelly has been curator or co-curator for twenty-four exhibitions, six of which received the Award of Merit, the highest accolade of the American Association for State and Local History.  They concerned such diverse subjects as David Crockett, portrait and landscape painting in Tennessee, landscape painting in Virginia, Virginia and the westward movement, and "The Story of Virginia," the Virginia Historical Society's flagship long-term exhibition.  From 2007 to 2010 he was project manager of Virginia's Civil War sesquicentennial exhibition.

Dr. Kelly is a past national chairman of the Curators Committee of the American Association of Museums and a past co-chairman of its Standing Professional Committees' Council.  He was president of the Antiquarian Society of Richmond and of the Richmond Branch of the English-Speaking Union of the United States

Among his publications since 2000, as author or editor, are:

*  Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement (with David Hackett Fischer). University Press of Virginia.
*  Images from the Storm: Private Robert Knox Sneden (with Charles F. Bryan, Jr. and Nelson D. Lankford).  The Free Press, Simon & Schuster.
*  The Virginia Landscape: A Cultural History (with William M. S. Rasmussen.  Howell Press.
*  The Story of Virginia. Publications Management. 
*  Jamestown, Québec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings (with Barbara Clark Smith).  Smithsonian Books. 

This event is free and open to the public.  No reservations are required.  Seating is on a first come, first seated basis.  The capacity of the hall is 120.