The Slate Valley Museum has been awarded a Library of America Grant for programming connected to the Library’s World War I and America project commemorating the centennial of World War I and the entry of United States forces on April 6, 1917. With the funds the Museum is planning three events through 2017 that will highlight writings and discussions around issues important to those who fought and the family and friends left behind. The first talk will be Saturday, April 29 at 2 pm at the Slate Valley Museum in Granville, Washington County.
The Great War began in 1914 and impacted many European countries prior to direct American involvement. With this in mind, the first event will be entitled “Putting the ‘World’ in the First World War.” This talk/discussion will examine just how the war that the United States joined in 1917 became a global conflict, how it came to involve peoples from around the world in fighting and working to contribute to the war efforts on fronts that ranged from France, to eastern Europe and Russia, to Italy, to the Balkans, and to Asia and Africa.
The talk will be led by SUNY Albany professor Richard S. Fogarty, Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean for General Education at the University at Albany, SUNY. A historian of modern France and Europe with particular interests in the histories of culture, politics, war, and the military, he has written extensively on World War I, the French army, racism, and French and European attitudes toward Islam and Muslims. He is the author of Race and War in France: Colonial Subjects in the French Army, 1914-1918 and co-editor of Empires in World War I: Shifting Frontiers and Imperial Dynamics in a Global Conflict. He is now working on a study of North African Muslims as prisoners of war in Germany, with special attention to the place of Islam in the wider military and ideological struggle in Europe and the Middle East.
Slate Valley Museum participation in the World War I and America project links well with two planned exhibitions that the Museum is developing for 2017 and 2018. The 2017 exhibition will highlight the Word War I conflict from elements within the forces and people of Great Britain. The Library of America grant will also allow Slate Valley Museum to draw attention to issues relating to war and conflict through the years using the issues and experiences of World War I. Our local veterans and veteran organizations will be a critical audience and contributor to the project.
The Slate Valley Museum is located at 17 Water Street, Granville. For further information visit their website or call (518) 642-1417
Leave a Reply