I am thinking about boycotting the 250th anniversary of the creation of 
Loudoun County, because as I remember it, Loudoun did not vote for General 
William Mahone in the 1889 gubernatorial election.  (Just kidding!)

Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brent Tarter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 4:08 PM
Subject: Loudoun County's 250th Anniversary


News Release

For Immediate Release:  February 15, 2007

Contact:          Alexandra S. Gressitt, Library Manager, (703) 737-7195

Kathleen R. Leidich, Assistant to the Town Manager, (703) 771-2709

Thomas Balch Library Announces Lecture Series Honoring Loudoun County's
250th Anniversary

The Thomas Balch Library is pleased to announce that it has received
grant funding from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public
Policy to underwrite a series of five public programs to commemorate the
250th anniversary of the establishment of Loudoun County. Admission is
free to these programs. They will be held at the Balch Library (208
W.Market Street) at 2:00 PM on the following Sunday afternoons: April
15th, May 6th, June 17th, September 16th, and October 21st.

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, an
affiliate organization of the National Endowment for the Humanities,
provided $2,000 in grant funding to support the 5-program lecture
series.

With the assistance of Loudoun Historical Society, Loudoun Restoration
and Preservation Society and Friends of The Thomas Balch Library, Inc.
the lectures will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons at Thomas
Balch Library in Leesburg.   Each lecturer will address the situation on
the Virginia frontier in 1757 when Loudoun County was formed. At the
time of its establishment the jurisdiction stood on the western border
of the British Empire and faced the threat of French and Native American
forces who raided west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and drove
English-speaking settlers back toward the sea.  In fact, Loudoun County
is named for John Campbell, the fourth Earl of Loudoun, who served as
commander-in-chief of British armed forces in North America when the
county was created.

The programs will be video-recorded and subsequently published by
Loudoun Historical Society and Friends of The Thomas Balch Library, Inc.
as a memento of the County's 250th anniversary and the 400th anniversary
of the arrival of the English in Virginia.

"We are delighted to receive this grant funding to help us promote
historical programming for the Town and County", remarked Library
Manager Alexandra Gressitt, "it has given us the opportunity to bring
together several local historical organizations and combine efforts in
celebrating Loudoun County's 250th Anniversary. This opportunity builds
a foundation for future cooperative ventures."

Participating scholars and their lecture schedule are as follows:

April 15 - Dr. Carl J. Ekburg, Professor Emeritus of the University of
Illinois, will comment on the "French Challenge to British North
America."  Dr. Ekburg, who holds his doctorate in history from Rutgers
University, and is the author of numerous volumes on eighteenth century
colonial history, including his forthcoming Stealing Indian Women:
Native Slavery in the Illinois Country (University of Illinois Press.)

May 6 - Dr. Paul Mapp from the history department at the College of
William and Mary will speak on the subject, "The Seven Years' War and
Changing British Imperial Objectives."  Author of the recent article in
the William and Mary Quarterly  "Atlantic History from Imperial,
Continental, and Pacific Perspectives,"  Mapp earned his Ph.D. in
history from Harvard University and currently teaches a course in
Williamsburg on "The Seven Years' War In A Global Context."

June 17 - "Caught in the Middle:  The Indigenous Response to Foreign
Imperial Designs" will be the topic addressed by Dr. Timothy Shannon.
An Associate Professor of History at Gettysburg College, Shannon has
published widely on the response of Native Americans to the arrival of
the Europeans and their armies on indigenous homelands after 1492.  Most
recently Cornell University Press issued his Indians and Colonists at
the Crossroads of Empire:  The Albany Congress of 1754.

September 16 - Warren Hofstra, the Stewart Bell Professor of American
History at Shenandoah University, will present "When a World War is the
Home Front:  The Seven Years' War on the Virginia Frontiers."  Hofstra,
who holds his doctorate in history from the University of Virginia, is a
specialist in Virginia's frontier experience and among many publications
is the author of The Planting of New Virginia (Johns Hopkins Press,
2004).

October 21- "The Imperious Laird:  John Campbell, Loudoun's Namesake"
will be the topic of a presentation by Dr. Douglas Foard.  A retired
history professor and former director of the Loudoun Museum, Foard also
served for more than a decade as Executive Secretary of Phi Beta Kappa,
the nation's oldest academic honor society.

For further information contact Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg at
703/737-7195.

Kathleen R. Leidich, AICP
Assistant to the Town Manager
Town of Leesburg
(703) 771-2709
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