I know who you are expecting. I am expecting him as well but in the interim please allow me and introduction. The name is lafayette though i believe that most of you americans will know me far better by my name of the ocean regime. And that of course is the marquis de lafayette. What a pleasure and honor to see all of you here on this simply magnificent day. This 14th of july, this fete national, the day in which we french celebrate the beginning of our revolution. While im here meeting with my dear friend, your Thomas Jefferson, in hope that he shall arrive sometime soon, so let us hope we can all have a conversation together. Where is m. Jefferson . Mon cher, lafayette. Mon cher, jefferson. Quel plaisir to see you again over so many years. Absolutely. And may i say with great reverence to bastille day. Just as we celebrate the revolution in america on the 4th of july in france of course it is the 14th of july. We shall celebrate together, my friend. We have not forgotten bastille day
Of the sinking of the Black Diamond down at Saint Clements river down on the potomac in maryland. I was invited by my colleague here karen stone who has done an amazing job of continuing to tell the story and to bring the story out from the darkness and into the light. A little bit about karen. She is the director of she oversees redistinct sites and that county for strategic planning, fundraising, creating strategic partnerships, overseeing Museum Partnerships and more. This is especially exciting. I love this article she recently published an article about this disaster in American Civil War magazine entitled peril on the potomac. Thank you for joining us on zoom this afternoon. Dir. Stone this is very exciting, jake. I am excited to be here. This actually took place today, dir. Wynn this is a really important event that has been overshadowed by many of the other events happening in april 1865, including other maritime disasters. A bad timing event for news coverage. Were other thing
Matts parents, tim and debbie because cello, who are tim and debbie costello, and his wife. Sophia and theodore are at home. Wonderful kids. I would like to also welcome are welcome the members of our board of directors who are with us tonight. We have ann stock. [applause] and bob mcgee. [applause] and two are en route, Anita Mcbride and gail west. Both will be with us tonight. Steve strong is the national cochair of our white house, National Council on white house history. He and his wife andrea are here with us tonight. This is one of our most important groups here at the White House Historical association. Their support, their encouragement, their inspiration , their wisdom really puts the wind in the sales of so much of what we do. We are grateful to have you with us here tonight, steve. The program tonight, dr. Matt castillo costello is going to share with us about his brandnew book hot off the presses. This is the first time we are making it available. We are very proud of proud
Our next speaker really needs no introduction and stays on the frontline. Congresswoman ayana pressley. She is an activist, a legislator, survivor and the first woman of color to be elected to congress from the commonwealth of massachusetts. Throughout her career as a public servant, she has fought to ensure those closest to the pain are closest to the power. Prior to her being elected to congress she served on the Boston City Council for eight years and was the first woman of color elected to the council in its 100 year history. Congresswoman ayana pressley. [applause and cheers] good morning, beloveds. Today i am thinking of the ancestors, not just the ones reported in our history books, but the ones omitted from those pages. The justice seekers, the freedom riders, the organizers, community builders, anyone who passed a brown bag lunch, read a freedom song, set up a prayer. Sacrifice and selfdetermination shaped history and brought us to this moment. The truth of the matter is we ar
Class on the evolution of a natural park system and the effort to preserve pristine wilderness. She argues that this approach obscures the ways that humans have iran tractor with the land. Her class is about one hour in ten minutes. So today were gonna be talking about landscapes and preservation and sort of preservation unexpectedly changes parks is protected areas. The intention here is really not only to sort of understand the history of these types of protected spaces but then also to make the process of preservation more visible. To make it more easier to understand, not only the history of parks and how they have changed over time the sort of more importantly why they have changed over time. Most of us when we think about preservation, we think about something staying the same and yet preservation actually changes things so thats really kind of the focus were gonna aim at today. I want to see if i can manage this. So in the context of sort of open space lands here in the u. S. ,