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September 2020
Explorer Southampton to Southampton
Join Andy for a cruise around the British Isles on Regent Explorer.
Find out more »May 2021
Lecture on Disease in History
With the covid pandemic looming in the background, I'll be discussing Disease in History in an illustrated talk at the Thomas Balch Library. Pre-registration is required. Register here for the talk. Until the age of modern medicine, lethal epidemics and fatal disease shaped human history as much—arguably more—than did the acts of great men (and women), and the events of politics and wars. Learn how plague, influenza, yellow fever, and small pox (as well as the “great pox,” syphilis),…
Find out more »September 2021
The Greely Expedition
Disinterest in Washington and the failure of two annual resupply missions to arrive condemned Army Lieutenant Adolphus Greely’s scientific expedition in Arctic Canada to starvation, cannibalism, and death. His plight and rescue were major news stories in the early 1880’s. This talk will be virtual and is a part of the Balch Library fall lecture series. You can register here. Use the drop down and register for a lecture. Let the library know you'll be attending the Greely Expedition talk…
Find out more »October 2021
Voyage to an Enchanted Land
In 1851-52 Navy Lieutenants William Herndon and Lardner Gibbon explored the Amazon River basin the hard way: west to east, from the river’s headwaters in Peru to its mouth on the Atlantic. Their superb official account of travels thousands of miles through the lush, fabulously strange heart of the continent became a best seller, and made Herndon into one of the age’s celebrity adventurers. This talk will be virtual and is a part of the Balch Library fall lecture series. …
Find out more »November 2021
Lost in the Ice
Lightship Cross Rip vanished off her station near Nantucket, Massachusetts, in February 1918 during the record “freeze-up” that year, the coldest North American winter in a century. Caught in pack ice, the old, small vessel with her crew of Cape Cod watermen drifted into the broad Atlantic and was never seen again. What precisely happened to Cross Rip and why, and was her first mate a hero? This talk will be virtual and is a part of the Balch Library fall lecture series. You…
Find out more »January 2022
2022 Balch Library Series
Andy will be presenting three talks in early 2022. The talks will include: Slavery (January 26, 2022) Millions of Africans, forcibly removed from their home continent, were until two centuries ago exported to labor as property in the mines and plantations of the New World. Their forced labor produced the flood of wealth that changed the economies of the old world, prompted industrialization, and foresaw today’s global economy. Determined efforts to outlaw and ultimately to eliminate this criminal business finally…
Find out more »The Slave Trade at Sea
Millions of Africans, forcibly removed from their home continent, were until two centuries ago exported to labor as property in the mines and plantations of the New World. Their forced labor produced the flood of wealth that changed the economies of the old world, prompted industrialization, and foresaw today’s global economy. Determined efforts to outlaw and ultimately to eliminate this criminal business finally succeeded in the early 19th century, thanks in part to policing by the Royal and United States…
Find out more »March 2022
Through the Dark Continent
Through the Dark Continent, Henry Morton Stanley and the Exploration of Africa Stanley’s successful search in 1871 for the Scottish medical missionary, David Livingstone, was a newspaper circulation-building caper funded by the N.Y. Herald’s publisher. Its brilliant success, Stanley’s subsequent bold trek east to west across Central Africa in 1874-77, and his later services to Leopold II made him famous, and thrust Africa indelibly into the consciousness of the western world. This talk will be virtual and is a part of the…
Find out more »April 2022
Congo
Congo, the Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN Former Navy Lieutenant Taunt’s third time in the Congo, as the first resident American diplomat in equatorial Africa, ended in January 1891 with his death along the great river, the familiar fate then of many Europeans in King Leopold’s private estate. His life and times at the end of that century open a window today on the tragic history of this deeply troubled nation. This talk will be…
Find out more »November 2023
Infectious Disease in World History
Andy will be talking about infectious disease in world history at Congressional Cemetery. His talk will be followed by a tour highlighting some buried in the cemetery who died of global infectious diseases.
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