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The Great War and its Legacy, 1914-1918: Fall 2017 Programs

An informational guide to the programming series on the legacy of World War I beginning in Fall 2014 and concluding in Fall 2018. The series was co-sponsored by the OSU Library and OSU Department of History.

Fall 2017 Programs

The Great War and Its Legacy: A Piano Performance of World War I-Era Music by Perry Gethner

Dr. Perry Gethner, Regents Professor, Norris Professor of French, OSU

September 7, 2017 | 7:00-8:300 pm | Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room, Edmon Low Library

Program Description:

Dr. Gethner will perform and discuss the artistic and cultural significance of piano works by English, French, German, and other composers of the World War I era.  His performance will include pieces by Bridge, Reger, Debussy, Bartok, Hindemith, and others.

Biography:

Perry Gethner is Regents Professor, Norris Professor of French, and head of the Department of Foreign Languages. He has published numerous articles on topics relating to early modern French drama and opera. In addition, he has published critical editions and translations of texts, mostly plays, from that period, by such authors as Rotrou, Voltaire and a variety of female playwrights. He also performs on the piano in both solo and chamber music concerts.

 

 


Chilocco Goes to War

Dr. Mary Jane Warde, Oklahoma Historical Society

October 26, 2017 | 3:30-5:00 pm | Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room, Edmon Low Library

Program Description:

Dr.  Warde will examine the “Chilocco boys” from the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (which had strong ties with OAMC/OSU) who served in the Great War. Many served on submarines, trained at Harvard and OU as radio operators, baked bread at Camp Funston, KS, fought with and entertained troops in France, and protected supply depots in Siberia. Many of their letters home are available, and Dr. Warde will discuss their experiences as Oklahomans in the Great War. 


Biography:  

Dr. Mary Jane Warde, author and historian, earned a B.A. at the University of Tennessee, Martin, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Oklahoma State University. For eight years, she was an Indian Historian/Indian Archivist with the Oklahoma Historical Society. During her tenure there, her work included collecting nearly eighty oral histories, mostly from Indian people, and helping design the Indian Gallery in the new Oklahoma Museum of History. She has written three books, including "Washita" and "George Washington Grayson and the Creek Nation." Her latest book, "When the Wolf Came: The Civil War and the Indian Territory," won the 2014 United Daughters of the Confederacy's Jefferson Davis Gold Medal, the 2014 Oklahoma Book Award, nonfiction and the 2014 Pate Award from the Fort Worth Civil War Round Table. In April 2014, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Historical Society's Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame.

Lecture video:

 


A Great Humanitarian Adventure: The American Red Cross and U.S. Foreign Relations During the First World War Era 

Dr. Julia Irwin, Associate Professor of History, University of South Florida

November 2, 2017 | 3:30-5:00 pm | Peggy V. Helmerich Browsing Room, Edmon Low Library

Program Description:

In this lecture, Dr. Julia Irwin discusses the important history of U.S. foreign aid during the First World War era. Focusing on the unprecedented role that the American Red Cross and its volunteers played in delivering U.S. humanitarian assistance to war-torn Europe, she examines the political, diplomatic, and cultural relevance of foreign relief to U.S. foreign relations.

Biography:

Dr. Julia Irwin earned her Ph.D. in History from Yale University and is currently an Associate Professor of History at the University of South Florida. An award-winning author, she has published widely on the place of humanitarian aid in 20th century U.S. foreign relations. Her book, Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening, is a history of U.S. international relief efforts during the First World War era. She is now writing a second book, Catastrophic Diplomacy: A History of U.S. Responses to Global Natural Disasters, a history of U.S. foreign disaster relief during the 20th century.

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