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PITTSBURG —
The 15th annual Eugene DeGruson Memorial Lecture will be a two-day this year, beginning with a free public keynote address at 7 p.m. today in the Timmons Ballroom, Hotel Stilwell.
The lecture series honors the late DeGruson, curator of special collections at Pittsburg State University from 1968 to 1997. He was also a noted authority on southeast Kansas literature and a poet.
The DeGruson Lecture is returning to the Hotel Stilwell for the first time since the inaugural event was held in 1997.
DeGruson was one of the dedicated supporters of the historic hotel and worked toward its restoration and preservation.
Delivering the keynote address will be Dr. Sharon Neet, a research colleague of DeGruson and a noted authority on Socialist editor Julius A. Wayland and The Appeal to Reason newspaper.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of J.A. Wayland, who took his own life at his Girard home just after the presidential election of 1912. Dr. Neet will review the last days of J.A. Wayland in Girard, note the enduring social and political legacy of the Socialist Party in America, and discuss the 1912 presidential campaign.
That campaign featured four prominent and viable candidates — incumbent President William Howard Taft, former president and Bull-Moose Republican Theodore Roosevelt, perennial Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs. and the eventual winner, Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Dr. Neet describes Wayland as a self-selecting martyr for the wage slaves of his day, believing he was more valuable to the Socialist cause as a martyr than an editor by 1912.
Various members of the Wayland family have donated numerous photographs, letters and other family papers and artifacts during recent months to the Special Collections department of Leonard H. Axe Library, PSU. Family members will be present at the lecture and will be recognized.
The second free public lecture will be presented at 2 p.m. Thursday in Axe Library by Dr. Mark Peterson, a member of the PSU social science department faculty since 1995. His topic will be “The Elections of 1912 and 2012: A Retrospective on Striking Similarities and Confounding Contrasts.”
A new exhibit documenting the life and work of J.A. Wayland will be on display at both lectures, and will feature some of the recently donated items. A reception will be held following each lecture.
Anyone needing additional information about these events may contact Randy Roberts, curator of Special Collections, at 620-235-4883, or reroberts@pittstate.edu.
The 15th annual Eugene DeGruson Memorial Lecture will be a two-day this year, beginning with a free public keynote address at 7 p.m. today in the Timmons Ballroom, Hotel Stilwell.
The lecture series honors the late DeGruson, curator of special collections at Pittsburg State University from 1968 to 1997. He was also a noted authority on southeast Kansas literature and a poet.
The DeGruson Lecture is returning to the Hotel Stilwell for the first time since the inaugural event was held in 1997.
DeGruson was one of the dedicated supporters of the historic hotel and worked toward its restoration and preservation.
Delivering the keynote address will be Dr. Sharon Neet, a research colleague of DeGruson and a noted authority on Socialist editor Julius A. Wayland and The Appeal to Reason newspaper.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of J.A. Wayland, who took his own life at his Girard home just after the presidential election of 1912. Dr. Neet will review the last days of J.A. Wayland in Girard, note the enduring social and political legacy of the Socialist Party in America, and discuss the 1912 presidential campaign.
That campaign featured four prominent and viable candidates — incumbent President William Howard Taft, former president and Bull-Moose Republican Theodore Roosevelt, perennial Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs. and the eventual winner, Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Dr. Neet describes Wayland as a self-selecting martyr for the wage slaves of his day, believing he was more valuable to the Socialist cause as a martyr than an editor by 1912.
Various members of the Wayland family have donated numerous photographs, letters and other family papers and artifacts during recent months to the Special Collections department of Leonard H. Axe Library, PSU. Family members will be present at the lecture and will be recognized.
The second free public lecture will be presented at 2 p.m. Thursday in Axe Library by Dr. Mark Peterson, a member of the PSU social science department faculty since 1995. His topic will be “The Elections of 1912 and 2012: A Retrospective on Striking Similarities and Confounding Contrasts.”
A new exhibit documenting the life and work of J.A. Wayland will be on display at both lectures, and will feature some of the recently donated items. A reception will be held following each lecture.
Anyone needing additional information about these events may contact Randy Roberts, curator of Special Collections, at 620-235-4883, or reroberts@pittstate.edu.
