Richard Beeman, a scholar of Revolutionary-era
America, will give the inaugural Patrick Henry Lecture at 4
p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20, in 305 Hodson Hall, Homewood
campus.
The title of Beeman's lecture is "The Democratic
Thought of Patrick Henry."
Beeman has been on the faculty of the University of
Pennsylvania's History Department for 36 years. He has
written five books and several dozen articles on aspects of
America's political and constitutional history in the 18th
and early 19th centuries. During his tenure at Penn, Beeman
has served as chair of the Department of History, as an
associate dean responsible for the Humanities and Social
Sciences departments and as dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences. He is currently vice chair of the Academic
Advisory Board and chair of the Program and Exhibits
Committee of the board of trustees of the National
Constitution Center. Beeman's teaching activities at Penn
have covered U.S. history from the founding of the colonies
up to the Civil War.
The lecture is funded by a $1 million gift from
Margaret Nuttle, a great-great-great granddaughter of
Patrick Henry. Nuttle's gift will provide a postdoctoral
fellowship, an undergraduate seminar and an annual lecture,
all focusing on pre-Colonial or Colonial history and
featuring Patrick Henry.
The widow of Philip E. Nuttle, a member of the Johns
Hopkins class of 1929, Margaret Nuttle said she hopes her
gift to the university's departments of History and
Political Science will promote a more balanced portrayal of
Patrick Henry's life and times. She would also like, she
said, to stimulate a resurgence in the teaching of American
history and political science.
A resident of Easton, Md., Nuttle has been an active
member of the university community since her husband's
death in 1996. She has hosted several events for the dean
of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and for the
president of the university. She also helped establish the
Class of 1929 Endowed Scholarship.