Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson will deliver the keynote address at the Founders Day convocation Thursday, Feb. 26 at 12:45 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. The event, which commemorates the 214th anniversary of the granting of the College’s charter by the state, will also celebrate Union’s role in the 19th-century abolitionist movement.
During the ceremony, the College will unveil a portrait of Moses Viney, a runaway slave from Maryland who escaped to Schenectady on the Underground Railroad. Viney was a coachman, messenger and constant companion of Eliphalet Nott, the longtime president of Union who eventually secured Viney’s freedom.
Viney’s portrait was completed by Simmie Knox, a renowned African-American artist who has painted the official White House portraits of former President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and other political and cultural figures.
Jared M. Gourrier ’10 will discuss Viney’s life and his role as a central figure on campus.
McPherson, the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of American History Emeritus at Princeton University, will give the address: “Union College’s Role in the Abolitionist Movement.” A Civil War historian, McPherson has authored 11 books, including “Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era," which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. His latest book, “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief,” was recently awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize. McPherson also won the Lincoln Prize in 1998 for “For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War.”
Also at Founders Day, Daniel Frio, a history teacher at Wayland High School in Massachusetts, will receive the Gideon Hawley Teacher Recognition Award. Frio was nominated by Priscilla Wright ’12. The award, named for the 1809 graduate of Union who was New York state’s first superintendent of public education, is given to secondary school teachers who have had a continuing influence on the academic life of Union students.
Two students – seniors Adrienne B. Hart and Alexander H. Schlosberg – are to receive the Hollander Prize for Music, and will provide a musical interlude.
The Founders Day convocation is the first in a series of events to commemorate Union’s role in the abolitionist movement. From Feb. 27 through 29, the College is hosting “The Underground Railroad, Its Legacies, and Our Communities,” the eighth annual Underground Railroad History Conference, at College Park Hall. Schaffer Library is hosting an exhibit, “Abolitionism and the Struggle for African-American Freedom: The Union College Experience,” chronicling the College’s involvement in the struggle for African-American freedom.