Preserve Louisiana’s monthly Heritage Lecture series continues with “Finding and Losing History: Lessons Learned from Two Civil Wars,” a lecture from Katherine Bentley Jeffrey at the Old Governor’s Mansion tonight, Aug. 10, at 6 p.m.
Katherine Bentley Jeffrey is a freelance editor and writer, as well as an independent scholar and author of Two Civil Wars: The Curious Shared Journal of a Baton Rouge Schoolgirl and a Union Sailor on the USS Essex. Last year, she published an essay covering the use of St. Mary’s Academy in Baton Rouge as a contraband facility in 1863.
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At her lecture, Jeffrey will discuss her research efforts and her book, which is the combination of two Civil War journals from Celeste Repp, a 13-year-old midcentury schoolgirl, and William L. Park, a sailor on the U.S.S. Essex during the American Rebellion. Particularly, Jeffery will detail how she found the information for her book in a farmhouse in rural Quebec, as well as the people and the stories that her research uncovered.
“Our history is not always where we look for it; sometimes it hides in unexpected places,” Jeffrey said in an interview with Preserve Louisiana representatives. “If we are not proactive in preserving our history, we will lose it.”
The Old Governor’s Mansion is at 502 North Blvd. Tonight’s event includes refreshments from Calandro’s Fine Wines and Spirits at 6 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m.