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The Annual Gordon Lecture in American Studies

The Fourth Annual Gordon Lecture- Wednesday 19 May 2004

This annual lecture, which serves as the culmination of the Centre's programmes for the academic year. The Gordon Lecture is named for Mr. Albert Gordon, who was instrumental in establishing an endowment fund earmarked for support of students on the Taught MPhil course in American Studies, and subsequent gifts to support the work of the Centre in fostering the American Studies community here at Glasgow. Mr. Gordon, now a remarkably vibrant 103 years of age, graduated from Harvard with a BA and an MBA in 1923 and 1925, respectively. He went on to a distinguished career in banking and finance, spending the next three quarters of the twentieth century living and working in New York City, where he still resides. In 2001, Mr. Gordon was named an Honorary Fellow of the University, in recognition of his continuing support of the Andrew Hook Centre.

I know Mr. Gordon, as a supporter of both Harvard and Glasgow, would be delighted with our choice of speaker this year. It is a great pleasure to introduce Prof. John Stauffer, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University; Prof Stauffer teaches in the Department of English and American Literature and Language and contributes to the graduate programme in the History of American Civilisation. After studying at Duke, Wesleyan, and Purdue Universities, Prof. Stauffer received his PhD in American Studies from Yale University; his doctoral thesis won the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize from the American Studies Association. That research, from which this talk is taken, became the wonderful book, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race; this book won the Avery Craven Book Prize from the Organisation of American Historians and the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Institute. He has published an edition of Frederick Douglass' My Bondage and My Freedom, and edited writings by John Brown. He also has a strong interest in the history of photography and its contributions to American culture, having published essays in this field as well.

When Vice Principal Malcolm McLeod approached Simon Newman and myself a few years back to ask if we knew anyone who might be able to shed light on an early African-American physician trained at the University of Glasgow, I must confess it took me a bit of time to realise that the person in question, James McCune Smith, was also one of the subjects of Prof. Stauffer's research. He brings to the Gordon lecture an important consideration of the issue of race in American culture, viewed through the prism of a person with such a fascinating local link; not only was James McCune Smith a graduate of this University but he was involved with the abolition movement in Glasgow during his time here. It seemed particularly fitting to invite Prof Stauffer to help us pursue these local links between the University and African American history, in a year when we also celebrate the centenary of Ralph Bunche, the noted political scientist and diplomat who received not only the Nobel Peace Prize, but also an honorary degree from Glasgow. Prof. Stauffer's research encourages us to situate the issues of race and civil rights historically, as he shares The Prophetic Vision of James McCune Smith.

The Third Annual Gordon Lecture was held on Tuesday 13 May 2003.

The Third Annual Gordon Lecture was held on Tuesday 13 May 2003. This year's distinguished speaker was Mr. Marc Pachter, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington DC. Mr. Pachter's topic, 'Posing for the Presidency: Style and Substance in Portraits of America's Leaders,' was drawn from research for a traveling exhibition of the National Portrait Gallery and his own publication, A Gallery of Presidents. In addition to his long service for the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Pachter is an expert on biography, and its relation to both history and portraiture. He edited Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation in the Bicentennial year of 1976, providing insight into transatlantic communication that made his such a fitting Gordon Lecturer. He went on to edit Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art, edits the scholarly journal Biography, and conducts seminars on the topic across the United States. He has introduced innovative programming to the National Portrait Gallery, challenging what a 'portrait' means, such as the 'Living Self-Portrait' series, through which our speaker has interviewed notable Americans before a live audience.

Thus, Mr. Pachter drew on his expertise in history, biography, and portraiture, as he considered how presidential personas were constructed through visual means and what these representations meant to the public both in their own day and throughout history. He showed how the 'official' portraits that presidents commission for the Portrait Gallery's collection sometimes echo and sometimes diverge from other popular images of the figures. Mr. Pachter began his lecture with a consideration of the varied portraits of the first president of the United States, George Washington, and explained how these portraits were used to help define the role of the presidency in the new nation. As he continued his survey of presidential portraits, Mr. Pachter showed two major strands: one in which presidents were portrayed as leaders with unique political and social acumen and another in which presidents were portrayed as men of the people. Mr. Pachter illustrated the ways in which presidents and artists might collaborate in the construction of the presidential image.

The lecture proved very popular with the American Studies community at Glasgow, and drew special guests including Ms. Cathy Hurst, the American Consul in Edinburgh, and James Holloway, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The Gordon Lecture is named for Mr. Albert Gordon, who was instrumental in establishing an endowment fund earmarked for support of students on the Taught MPhil course in American Studies, and subsequent gifts to support the work of the Centre in fostering the American Studies community here at Glasgow.

The Second Annual Gordon Lecture -7 May 2002

The 2002 Gordon Lecture in American Studies will be given by Professor William Deverell (California Institute of Technology). Professor Deverell is an expert in the history of the American West, with particular reference to the history and culture of California and Los Angeles. He is the author of Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910 (1994), and is co-author of The West in the History of the Nation (2000), Eden by
Design: The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region (2000), and Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s (2001).

Professor Deverell will be in Glasgow for several days, meeting with students and staff to discuss their research. He will deliver the Gordon Lecture, entitled 'History and the City of the Future: Writing the Los Angeles Past' at 5.30 on Tuesday 7 May, in the
Medieval Lecture Room, 10 University Gardens
A reception will follow the lecture

The Inaugural Gordon Lecture in American Studies

On 7th May 2001, the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies held

Professor Hook delivers the first Gordon Lecture.

the inaugural Gordon Lecture. This event was the first in an annual series named for Mr Albert Gordon, who has been instrumental in establishing an endowment fund earmarked for support of students enrolled in the Taught M.Phil. Programme in American Studies. Mr Gordon received hi BA (1923) and MBA (1925) degrees from Harvard University, and has worked in banking and finance in New York City for three-quarters of a century; he has just been named an Honorary Fellow of the University of Glasgow.

For our second annual lecture, the centre invited William Deverell, Professor of History at the California Institute of Technology,and a leading scholar of Western history within a broader American Studies context ,to share his recent research. A graduate of Princeton University,Professor Deverell is the author