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The nineteenth-century Kentucky antislavery reformer Cassius Marcellus Clay is generally remembered as a knife-wielding rabble-rouser who both inspired and enraged his contemporaries. Clay brawled with opponents while stumping for state constitutional changes to curtail the slave trade. He famously deployed cannons to protect the office of the antislavery newspaper he founded in Lexington. Despite attempts on his life, he helped found the national Republican party and positioned himself as a staunch border state ally of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, he served as US minister to Russia, working to ensure that European allies would not recognize the Confederacy. And yet he was a slave owner until the end of the Civil War. Though often misremembered as an abolitionist, Clay was like many Americans of his time: interested in a gradual end to the institution of slavery but largely on grounds that it limited whites' ability to profit from free labor and the South's opportunity for economic advancement. In the end, Clay's political positions were far more about protecting members of his own class than advancing the cause of Black freedom.

This vivid and insightful biography reveals Cassius Clay as he was: colorful, yes, but in many ways typical of white Americans who disliked slavery in principle but remained comfortable accommodating it. Reconsidering Clay as emblematic rather than exceptional, Anne E. Marshall shows today's readers why it took a violent war to finally abolish slavery and why African Americans' demands for equality struggled to gain white support after the Civil War.

Anne E. Marshall is associate professor of history and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University.

A scion of the Protestant elite, Theodore Roosevelt was an unlikely ally of the waves of impoverished Jewish newcomers who crowded the docks at Ellis Island. Yet from his earliest years he forged ties with Jews never before witnessed in a president. American Maccabee traces Roosevelt’s deep connection with the Jewish people at every step of his dazzling ascent. But it also reveals a man of contradictions whose checkered approach to Jewish issues was no less conflicted than the nation he led.

Drawing on new archival research to paint a richly nuanced portrait of an iconic figure, American Maccabee chronicles the complicated relationship between the leader of a youthful nation and the people of an ancient faith.

Andrew Porwancher is professor of history at Arizona State University. His books include The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton) and The Devil Himself: A Tale of Honor, Insanity, and the Birth of Modern America.

Please note: In the July/August Calendar, this was mistakenly published with a Thursday date. It is on Tuesday, August 26. Please call the Filson with any questions.

This program is generously sponsored by Dinsmore.

Want to channel your inner historian and archeologist? Join us on a tour of the historic Oxmoor Farm estate and archeological dig site!  Oxmoor’s curator, Shirley Harmon, will lead a historic tour of the Oxmoor house comprised of sections dating back to 1791, 1829 and 1928, and talk about the history of the people who lived and worked at Oxmoor Farm. Archeologist Lori Stahlgren will lead a tour of the excavation site, and participants will have the opportunity to participate in a special dig. The dig site is located inside the former enslaved dwellings and is part of an ongoing restoration project that will culminate with a future on-site exhibit about the life of the enslaved people that once lived at Oxmoor Farm.

Participants must be able to traverse uneven terrain, ascend/descend stairs, and are required to wear clothing and footwear suitable for outdoor walking. As a portion of this event is held outdoors, participants should expect to be exposed to high temperatures and humidity.

Reserve your spot today for the first in a series of events that explore the roles of printing and bookmaking in Native American communities.  The Filson will host a hands-on bookbinding workshop featuring the work of Myaamia artist Megan Sekulich (Myaamia Center - Miami University). Participants will have the opportunity to craft hand-sewn pamphlets with letterpress printed covers, enclosing an original piece by Sekulich that draws inspiration from the Myaamia Kiilhswaakani - the Miami Lunar Calendar. Sekulich’s depiction of the lunar cycle emphasizes Indigenous ecological knowledge, interweaving Myaamia aesthetics and Myaamiaataweenki text. The workshop will be co-guided by local printer and bookbinder, Mark Alan Mattes of Hot Brown Press.

Separate workshops will be conducted in the morning (10:30 a.m.-noon) and afternoon (1:30-3:00 p.m.). Each workshop has a limited capacity of 12 participants. A material fee is included in the admission price. Reservations are required.

Megan Sekulich is a Myaamia artist. Her body of work incorporates woodcut relief, intaglio, collage, textile, mixed media, and traditional crafts.

Dr. Mark Alan Mattes is the founder of Hot Brown Press, a letterpress print shop and bindery in Louisville.