Southern Historical Collection Book Series
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Join us for three evenings with authors whose research has involved materials in the Southern Historical Collection of the Wilson Special Collections Library.
In planning the book series, the Southern Historical Collection wanted to spotlight recent books by authors who based their research in the SHC, said Biff Hollingsworth, collecting and public programming archivist. "The thread that connects the three of them is that they each address a southern cultural theme–foodways, music and religion." In addition, all three books were published in the last year by UNC Press.These programs are a chance to showcase the end products of the SHC's work, Hollingsworth said. "We collect and preserve original material, then make it accessible to the person writing the book. This is a chance to celebrate the beginning and the culmination of that process."
Hearthside Cooking: Early American Southern Cuisine Updated for Today's Hearth and Cookstove
Nancy Carter Crump
Tuesday, March 24
Museum interpreters, historical re-enactors, home cooks, and others use Hearthside Cooking for traditional culinary customs and new recipe techniques. The book, first published in 1986, contains more than 250 recipes and highlights African American culinary customs, the Civil War's effect on Southern food, and the transition from hearth to stove cooking. Founder of the Culinary Historians of Virginia, Crump frequently lectures at historic sites and other venues throughout the South. (Learn More)
Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South
Patrick Huber
Monday, March 30
Linthead Stomp focuses on overlooked roots of American country music–factories in the pre-World War II Piedmont South. Through colorful portraits of mill-hand fiddlers, guitarists, and banjo pickers, Huber illustrates a distinct American music melding the rural countryside and urban-industrial life. Huber is associate professor of history at Missouri University of Science and Technology and coauthor of The 1920s: American Popular Culture through History. (Learn More)
The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial and Antebellum Virginia
Charles F. Irons
Tuesday, April 7
Irons examines how white plantation owners in colonial and antebellum America rationalized evangelical worship alongside the black men and women they claimed to own. Irons draws from church records, denominational newspapers, slave narratives, and private letters and diaries to illustrate the theological arguments advocated by white proslavery evangelicals. Irons is assistant professor of history at Elon University. (Learn More)
