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Carolyn Mitchell · 09-09-2016, 08:52 PM

(09-09-2016 11:24 AM)L Verge Wrote: Lincoln Assassination Studies: No Foolin' - Just Facts... This is the theme we have chosen for the 2017 Surratt Conference in deference to the event falling on April Fool's weekend (March 31-April 2, 2017).

We are now prepared to divulge our speakers, topics, special trips, and banquet plans. Full packets with complete information will be mailed to all Surratt Society members the first week of November. If any non-members reading this would like to be included in that mailing, please contact me at laurie.verge@pgparks.com.

Friday: Special bus trip (for the first 50 to register for it) to visit the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History on the Mall in D.C., which opens on September 24 this year. This is a remarkable, architectural masterpiece before one even looks at the exhibits. Check it out online. Lunch will be in Old Town Alexandria and finish with the African American Museum in that city and a talk on the contraband cemetery there that was totally forgotten about in the early-20th century and covered over by development. It has been resurrected over the past ten years and is part of the ongoing story from slavery to freedom and progress. The bus will return to Surratt House that evening in time for the Welcoming Reception at the James O. Hall Research Center.

Saturday: This is our traditional day of "edumacation." Registrants will begin with a full breakfast buffet in the conference area at Colony South Hotel and then settle in for the following sessions (in no particular order at this point): Dave Taylor speaking on "Assassination 'Extras:' Their Hidden Histories;" Karen Needles on "Taking the Lincoln Assassination into the Digital Age;" Karen heads the Lincoln Archives Digital Project. Burrus Carnahan will help us make sense of the military trial of the conspirators with his talk on "The Military Trial: Myth and Reality;" while Bill Richter will address "'My Policy Is To Have No Policy:' Abraham Lincoln and the Reconstruction of Our Nation." Blaine Houmes will share some medical thoughts on "There's Something About Mary." Rounding out the speakers' list is Scott Schroeder talking on "The Lincoln Assassination Story: Depictions in American Comic Books and Graphic Novels."

Saturday will close with our annual conference banquet and Kate Ramirez will reprise her first-person portrayal of Mary Surratt, "Beware The People Whistling," a dramatic glimpse of the woman trapped in the moments between life and death.

On Sunday, the first 50 registrants for the bus trip will be heading to Gettysburg. If you think you have seen all that the town can possibly offer, have you been to the new Seminary Ridge Museum on the college grounds; or the Shriver House where Confederate sharpshooters hid in the attic; or the newly upgraded Lincoln Train Museum with more artifacts added to the displays? Have you had lunch at Gen. Pickett's Restaurant overlooking his field of charge? If you answered "no" to any of those questions, you will want to join us.

We are doing our best to hold costs at the same level (or lower) as the past two years for all of the conference segments. We have managed to convince the hotel to offer even lower room rates, and we are currently negotiating with the chef on the cost of meals, which are built into the basic registration fee. The Society never makes a profit on the conference, but we view it as an educational endeavor. We would love to meet and greet many of you that weekend.

I'm so bummed I can't make it. I will be in Boston on 4/1 on vacation. I wished I would have known the line up of presenters sooner. I definitely would have love to see Dave Taylor and Kate Ramirez. I hope someone records Dave's presentation. Here's the link to Kate's powerful presentation of Mary Surratt: https://boothiebarn.com/2016/06/18/bewar...whistling/

My husband and I hung out with them last year and gave us a personal JWB Escape Route Tour. Great fun!

While in Boston, I hope to visit Edwin Booth's grave at Mt Auburn Cemetery (also buried on the lot is his first wife Mary Devlin and their only child together Edwina), Junius Brutus Booth Jr's gravesite, Boothden (Edwin's home) and Mary Devlin stained glass window in Middleton, RI etc.