BURLINGTON Champlain College's 2008-09 Leadership American Style lecture series opens Wednesday, Oct. 15 with a talk by historian, biographer and Champlain College professor Willard Sterne Randall
The talk, entitled Champlain Names His Lake, is based on three years of research and travel by Champlain College professors Randall and Dr. Nancy Nahra to track down Samuel de Champlain's hometown in France and the many ports of call he visited during his explorations.
The free, lecture is open to the public. It begins at 7:30 pm in Champlain College Alumni Auditorium.
The lake is so much a part of what we are here in our region, Nahra said. And through it, Samuel de Champlain's history collides with our own.
Champlain named for himself the long, narrow lake that he explored in 1609. He was exploring and mapping New France for King Henry IV of France and he entered the lake from its northern tip, paddling in war canoes with Native American guides. He would later battle the Iroquois at Fort Ticonderoga, in the southern end of the lake, marking the first battle of the French-Indian War.
We'll explore the results of our research, including three trips to France to track down Champlain from his birth in a medieval village that isn't even on the map anymore to our Lake Champlain shores, Randall explained.
The talk features a lot of the images we've gathered of Champlain's world on both sides of the Atlantic and depicts French and Native American life at the time of Champlain's 29 voyages across the Atlantic. It touches on exploration, trade, women's life, native culture and the first shots of a 150-year struggle between the French and their Indian allies and the English and theirs, he explained. Randall teaches a Vermont history course at the College and is a Pulitzer Prize nominated biographer.
The theme of the celebration, When the French Were Here, invites the broadest possible consideration of Champlain's achievements, his life, and of his world as a cultural, social and ideological context. Champlain's conference is not divided along rigid lines.
Champlain College will also host an international academic symposium July 2-5, 2009 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain. It is only academic symposium to be offered as part of the Vermont's Quadricentennial celebration.
The theme of the symposium, lecture series and an associated web site is When the French Were Here. Experts from France, Canada and across the United States will gather at Champlain College, a private college that was named for the lake that it overlooks from Burlington's Hill Section.
Champlain College has also created a web-based resource about Samuel de Champlain at www.champlainquadricentennial.com/ which includes a history timeline, biography of Samuel de Champlain, maps and teaching resources for schools and parents.
Vermont will commemorate this historic event in 2009 with festivals, pageants, exhibits, performances, educational symposiums and much more. The College is coordinating its activities with Quadricentennial committees of the states of Vermont and New York.
First Night Burlington on Dec. 31, kicks off the statewide Vermont Celebrates Champlain commemoration events. For information about other events, www.CelebrateChamplain.org/events.
Champlain College has 2,000 undergraduate students and is ranked 12th in the top tier of Best Baccalaureate Colleges in the North by 2009 Americas Best Colleges. Champlain College also offers study abroad programs with campuses in Dublin, Ireland and Montreal, Quebec and extensive online and continuing professional education. To learn more about Champlain College, visit www.champlain.edu.
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Champlain Names His Lake lecture by historian and biographer Willard Sterne Randall. Part of the Champlain College 2008-09 Leadership American Style series beginning Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Champlain College Alumni Auditorium, South Willard Street, Burlington, Vt. The illustrated talk is based on three years of research and travel by Champlain College professors Randall and Dr. Nancy Nahra to track down explorer Samuel de Champlains hometown in France and the many ports of call he visited during his explorations. Free and open to the open to the public. For more information call (802)651-5996 or visit www.champlainquadricentennial.com/