"Getting a Bicentennial Right: Who Cares,"
Lecture by Dr. Frederick E. Hoxie

February 2012—Marquette University Libraries presents Dr. Frederick E. Hoxie in a public lecture that officially launches the "Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country" exhibition. The lecture will be held in the Prucha Archives Reading Room (Raynor Library 3rd floor) and followed by a public reception.

March 29 (Thursday), 2012, 4:30 p.m.

Prucha Archives Reading Room

Raynor Library Third Floor

Dr. Hoxie, professor of History at the University Illinois, served as curator/organizer for the traveling Lewis & Clark exhibit. The bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 2004-2006 provided scholars, local history organizations, American Indian tribes, and the general public an opportunity to talk about an important and complex national event. "Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country" was an exhibit designed to support that conversation. Drawing on the traveling version of the exhibit, on display at the time of the lecture, Professor Hoxie will describe the ideas and the processes that drove the creation and organization of this project. In addition, Dr. Hoxie will discuss the importance of using public history to foster public discussions of difficult and controversial subjects. Hoxie is the author of seven books about Native American history, including the most recent, The People: A History of Native America (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) and Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country: The Native American Perspective (University of Illinois Press, 2007). Two of his many journal articles may be accessed through the Raynor Memorial Libraries' resource guide for the exhibit.

Dr. Hoxie's lecture serves as the official kick-off for the exhibit, installed in Raynor Library March 14 to April 27, 2012. Based on original documents in the rich Native American collections of the Newberry Library and other institutions, the exhibit examines Lewis and Clark's 1804 to 1806 expedition to the Pacific Ocean and its encounter with more than 50 native tribes along the way. Read more details about the exhibit and other lectures here.

The lecture is free and open to the Marquette and Milwaukee communities. Members of the public without a Marquette ID should telephone the library archives by noon on March 28 to pre-register: (414) 288-7256. Two parking structures (Wells Street between 12th and 13th; and 16th St. between Wisconsin and Wells) are open to visitors for a fee; a campus map and driving directions to campus are here. Questions about any of the events may be addressed to archivist Bill Fliss by e-mail or phone (414) 288-5906.

Dr. Hoxie's lecture is sponsored by the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Science, the Department of History, and Raynor Memorial Libraries. The sponsors of the traveling exhibit, "Lewis & Clark and the Indian Country," are represented below.