60s SymposiumPage 1(rev2) - Chester County Historical Society

A SYMPOSIUM
Saturday, April 16, 2016
!
At the outset of the ‘60s, it was “Ask not what your country can do
for you.” Long before the decade ended, it was “Hell No, We Won’t
Go.” How and why did this transformation occur?
Bill Ehrhart
At the beginning of the 1960s, many Americans believed they were standing at the dawn of
a golden age. On January 20, 1961, the handsome and charismatic John F. Kennedy
became president of the United States. His confidence that, as one historian put it, “the
THE AGE OF AQUARIUS
IN CHESTER COUNTY
government possessed big answers to big problems” seemed to set the tone for the rest of the
decade. However, that golden age never materialized. On the contrary, by the end of the
1960s it seemed that the nation was falling apart.
A SYMPOSIUM
Our symposium will explore the myths and realities of the years 1954 through 1974, and
Saturday, April 16, 2016
provide insights into the turbulence, turmoil, creativity and accomplishments of the 1960s
through the music, fads, fashions and protests of twenty years that defined a generation.
or 610-692-4800.
225 North High Street
West Chester, PA 19380
RSVP by April 8, 2016 to [email protected]
10:50 a.m. –
11:40 a.m.
Symposium schedule (all activities at CCHS):
8:15 a.m.
8:45 a.m.
9:00 a.m. – 9:40 a.m.
Registration (coffee and pastries)
Welcome and Opening remarks
Emma Jones Lapsansky
Haverford College
Keynote Speaker
Sculpting a New Identity:
Peace, War and Revolution
in Camelot
Emma Jones Lapsansky is Emeritus
Professor of History and Curator of
the Quaker Collection at Haverford
College.
She received her doctorate in American Civilization from the
University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include Quaker
history, African-American history and especially the intersection
between the two, as well as Pennsylvania history, the American
West, and material culture. She is an active member of the
Organization of American Historians and of the Friends Historical
Association, a Board member of the Library Company of Philadelphia, and a past board member of Friends Central School. Like
Benjamin Franklin, she is always “in search of a better world.”
9:45 a.m. – 10:45
Michael Long
Elizabethtown College
From Black to Gay: The Evolving
Dimensions of the Civil Rights
Movement
The modern civil rights movement and
the emerging gay and lesbian rights
movement are directly linked in the
social reforms of the 1960s. Early gay
rights pioneer Frank Kameny will be
featured as part of how those
connections evolved.
Michael Long has a doctoral degree
from Emory University and is the author
or editor of several books on civil rights, politics, and religion. He
has a special interest in the genre of letters and is the editor, most
recently, of I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in
Letters; and Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights
Letters of Thurgood Marshall. Long’s current work — a study of
Martin Luther King, Jr., homosexuality, and gay rights — was
recently featured on CNN.com.
Break
Jo B. Paoletti
University of Maryland
Revolution will be Litigated:
Short Skirts, Long Hair, and
Civil Rights
The fashions of the 1960s are often
portrayed as frivolous and
superficial. But these provocative
fashion trends reflected the rising
wave of gender politics and the
sexual revolution.
Jo Barraclough Paoletti is a Professor in the American Studies
Department at the University of Maryland. With degrees in
apparel design and textiles from Syracuse University, the
University of Rhode Island and the University of Maryland, she
has concentrated most of her research on two main questions.
How does consumer culture shape gender identity? How does
gender "identity work" influence consumer culture? This effort
began with her 1980 dissertation, “Changes in the masculine
image in the United States, 1880-1910,” and continues
through Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in
America (2012) and Sex and Unisex: Fashion, Feminism and
the Sexual Revolution. Her current projects include a “research
memoir” about the intersection of age and gender.
11:45 a.m. – 12:25 p.m.
Bill Ehrhart
Haverford School
When the Chickens
Came Home to Roost:
the Vietnam War &
the 60s Generation
Bill Ehrhart is a Marine Corps veteran
of the American War in Vietnam.
He holds a doctorate in American
Studies, is author or editor of twenty books of prose and poetry,
and is currently a Master Teacher of History and English at the
Haverford School. His first published work, a poem about
Swarthmore College, appeared in the Chronicle of Higher
Education, and the following year eight of his poems were
included in Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam
Veterans. He has written and published a wide variety of poems
and nonfiction prose. Although he is known primarily as a
"Vietnam War poet," he has written essays and articles on such
topics as radio disc jockeys, tugboats on the Delaware River, the
Internal Revenue Service, and a variety of modern and contemporary poets from William Wantling to Daniel Hoffman.
12:30 p.m. –
1:25 p.m.
1:30 – 2:15 p.m.
Lunch on-site. Sandwich and salad
buffet included with registration.
Movies in a Decade of Change
Michell Muldoon
Michell Muldoon was the guest
curator and contributor to the 2014
CCHS exhibit Pop Culture, Movies,
Memorabilia and The Media: The
Steve and Michell Friedman
Collection. Her firsthand experience in
the media industry has encompassed
a successful career in art direction for
film and television.
Kim Holston
Kim Holston is a librarian and Chester
County native who lives in
Wilmington, DE with his wife Nancy
and a menagerie of pets. Among his
numerous publications on the subject
of movies are Starlet Biographies,
Filmographies, TV Credits and Photos
of 54 Famous and Not So Famous
Leading Ladies of the 1960s (1988),
and Navel Gazing: How Revealed Bellybuttons of the 1960s
Signaled the End of Movie Clichés Involving Negligees, Men's
Hats and Freshwater Swim Scenes (2015).
2:20 p.m.– 3:05 p.m. The Beatles Phenomenon
Mark will discuss not only the music
of the Beatles but the group’s impact
on the world, especially in America.
Mark Oppenlander
Teacher
Mark Oppenlander at the age of three
became a Beatle fanatic while
watching the Ed Sullivan show in
February 1964. The Beatles were such
an inspiration that at the age of seven Mark started taking guitar
lessons at Taylor's Music Store in West Chester. He is now a
full-time musician and teacher in the West Chester area. Mark
occasionally puts on a 12-hour long Beatles seminar at Taylor's
that has been enjoyed by many a Beatle fan.
BREAK
3:30 p.m.
Wrap up panel – all speakers
Michael Peich, PhD will moderate
4:00 p.m.
Reception (included in registration)
Registration includes lunch, refreshments and closing
reception. Advance paid symposium registration will
provide a $5 discount for general admission to the CCHS
Antiques Show on April 2 or 3, 2016. CCHS membership
may be purchased at time of registration.
Non-CCHS member
CCHS member
Students (with ID)
$50
$35
$20
RSVP by April 8, 2016 to [email protected] or
610-692-4800
Chester County Historical Society
225 N. High Street
West Chester, PA 19380
www.chestercohistorical.org
P R E S E N T I N G C O R P O R AT E E X H I B I T I O N S P O N S O R S