Slave ship exhibit kicks off year of Jamestown 2007 events at University of Richmond
January 24, 2007
A museum exhibit of artifacts from a colonial-era ship used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade kicks off University of Richmond's year-long participation in Virginia's Jamestown 2007 commemoration Feb. 3.
An official Jamestown 2007 partner, the university will present an array of educational, cultural and historical offerings as part of the historic celebration. Events and programs will include conferences, art exhibitions, historical displays, musical performances, lectures and more--many of which are free and open to the public.
To further bring Jamestown history to life, Richmond professor Dan Roberts, host of the nationally syndicated radio program "A Moment in Time," has produced a number of special segments about the challenges and triumphs in the New World's first permanent English settlement. They can be heard online at www.richmond.edu/jamestown2007/mit.htm.
"A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie" will be presented on campus at the university's Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art through May 18. Admission is free and open to the public.
The Henrietta Marie, a British merchant vessel, sank off Key West May 18, 1700, after delivering some 300 slaves worth $400,000 in today's money to Port Royal, Jamaica. The largest slave ship excavated, it is the world's largest source of tangible objects from the early years of the slave trade. The exhibition is made possible with funding from Guy A. Ross, a university trustee and 1973 graduate, and the John D. Evans Foundation.
Museum hours are Tuesdays-Sundays, 1-5 p.m., through April 29, and Wednesdays-Fridays, 1-4 p.m., May 2-18. The museum will be closed March 3-12 for spring break and April 7-9 for Easter weekend. For more information, call (804) 289-8276.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., several present and former U.S. Supreme Court justices, British law lords, leading Virginia legal figures and scholars from around the country will participate in a symposium, "The Rule of Law in Democracies," April 11-13 at the School of Law.
The Jepson School of Leadership Studies plans a symposium on "The Leadership of Discovery" for September.
The university's Schola Cantorum choir is producing a public radio program of period music from the London of Shakespeare's time, the Appalachians, spirituals of the Deep South, Puritan New England, the ancient Huron tribe and the Rio Grande, plus the modern era. It will be broadcast by more than 100 stations in December.
For a complete schedule of Jamestown 2007 events at the university, see www.richmond.edu/jamestown2007/.