A reception celebrating Union “Notables” Andrea Barrett, Baruch Samuel Blumberg and William Henry Seward will be held Friday, Feb. 8, 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the Schaffer Library Atrium.
The event will feature remarks, beginning at 5:15 p.m., by President Stephen C. Ainlay and James Underwood, the Chauncey H. Winters Research Professor of Political Science. It is free and open to the public.
Union Notables is a rotating exhibit that celebrates the great men and women who have studied at Union over two centuries and gone on to make leading contributions in their fields.
Barrett, Class of 1974, was a Biology major who won the National Book Award in 1996 for “Ship Fever and Other Stories” and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for “Servants of the Map” in 2003. In 2001, she received a MacArthur “Genius” award.
Blumberg, Class of 1946, is an internationally renowned physician, researcher and scholar who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976 (along with D. Carlton Gajdusek, M.D.) for the discovery of the hepatitis B virus.
Seward, Class of 1820, was best known as the secretary of state under President Abraham Lincoln and the man who negotiated the $7.2 million U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. He also was a governor of New York and presidential candidate running against Lincoln in 1860.
The Schaffer exhibition will feature a new trio of notables every six months. This initial group of notables will remain on display through Feb. 29.
The next display, beginning March 3, will showcase Gordon Gould, Class of 1941, inventor of the laser; Lewis Henry Morgan, Class of 1840, the “father of modern American anthropology,” best known for his work on cultural evolution and Native Americans; and Phil Robinson, Class of 1971, screenwriter and director (“Field of Dreams,” “Sneakers,” “Sum of All Fears”).
The exhibits and reception are sponsored by the President’s Office, the Mandeville Gallery and the Union College Notables Committee.