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Lafayette College plans a yearlong celebration of the life and legacy of the man for whom it is named, the Marquis de Lafayette, in observance of the 250th anniversary of the Marquis’ birth on Sept. 6, 1757.
“Throughout the coming year the College will celebrate the 250th birthday of the Marquis de Lafayette, one of the truly great and remarkable people in history, with special events that remind us of how applicable, especially in the global sense, the connection between a free society and an educated citizenry is today,” says President Daniel Weiss.
“It is the College’s good fortune to be associated with an individual who was so deeply dedicated to freedom and liberty. Lafayette believed fully in the ideal of true liberty because he understood it as ‘the fruition of the enactment of the rights of man.’ His life was a superb example of global citizenship and service.” Weiss says. “As we chart the future of the College in our global society we can do no better than to hold close to our own hearts and our ongoing sense of purpose the enduring values of the Marquis de Lafayette.”
Major events will include a lecture series, entitled Lives of Liberty, featuring renowned speakers; a historical exhibit, entitled A Son and his Adoptive Father: The Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington, and, of course, a birthday party, on Sept. 6, that will include a talk by Lloyd Kramer, author of Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolution, at 4:10 p.m. in the Williams Center for the Arts. Kramer’slecture entitled, “Lafayette’s Historical Legacy: Politics, Culture, and the Modern World,” will be the John L. Hatfield ’67 Lecture hosted by the Friends of Skillman Library.
In the fall, the Lives of Liberty series will include distinguished scholars whose work deals with the Marquis’ life or the times in which he lived. David McCullough, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his biographies of Harry S Truman and John Adams, will kick off the series with a keynote talk entitled, “Ties that Bind: America and France,” 8 p.m. Sept. 5 in Kamine Gymnasium. Ron Chernow, recipient of the inaugural George Washington Book Prize for his 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton, will speak on “Intertwined Lives: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and the Birth of the American Republic,” 4:15 p.m. Oct. 19 in the Williams Center for the Arts. It is anticipated that another speaker will be added to the fall slate.
In the spring, the lecture series will feature speakers whose lives embody the ideals of Lafayette in the world today. Speakers’ names and dates will be announced.
A major partnership between the College and George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, the exhibit A Son and His Adoptive Fatheris on display through Aug. 5 in Mount Vernon’s new F.M. Kirby Foundation Gallery. It will open at the College Sept. 6 and remain on view in the Williams Center for the Arts gallery through Oct. 28 before moving to the New-York Historical Society for a Nov. 13 opening.
The College is the primary lender to the exhibit, which features more than 60 items from the College’s Marquis de Lafayette collections. Among these are several of the most significant original letters that Lafayette wrote to Washington, including the 1783 letter containing Lafayette’s proposal to Washington about freeing slaves, the 1790 letter that transmitted the key to the Bastille, and letters written partially in code during the American Revolution. The current issue of Lafayette Alumni News magazine features a cover story by Diane Windham Shaw, special collections librarian and College archivist, on the Marquis and his role in the anti-slavery movement, one of several human-rights causes he espoused.
There are also portraits, engravings, documents, a sword that belonged to Lafayette, china, glassware, medals, textiles, and sheet music. Many of these objects were produced as souvenirs during Lafayette’s 1824-25 Farewell Tour of America. The paintings come from the College’s art collection, including Thomas Sully’s portrait of Lafayette from the Farewell Tour and Jean-Baptiste Le Paon’s Lafayette at Yorktown.
In all, the exhibit displays more than 125 artifacts, including materials from Harvard College, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Life Guard Society of Mount Vernon, Society of the Cincinnati, and Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.
The exhibit is organized by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in partnership with Lafayette College and made possible by the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation, The Founders, Washington Committee for Historic Mount Vernon, and the Embassy of France. Additional support for the exhibition at Lafayette College is provided by gifts from Lafayette Ambassador Bank and Jere G. Oren ’50. Oren’s gift was made in memory of his parents, Samuel and Sophie Oren.
Details about additional College events and programs honoring the Marquis’ legacy and ideals during the 250th anniversary year will be announced as planning progresses.