6th Annual Chamberlain Legacy Lecture

Something Abides: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Declaration of Independence Featuring Dr. Chandra Manning, Professor of American History at Georgetown University Friday, September 11, 2026 Brunswick Hotel, 4 Noble Street Reception Begins at 5:30PM. Cash bar. Formal programs begins at 6PM. As we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this talk takes a close look at three of Chamberlain’s speeches for what they say about the Declaration and the nation it founded at three distinct moments in Chamberlain’s life and that of the country. By reflecting on both the continuities and changes across the decades, we consider Chamberlain in new lights and we gain new insights into the Declaration as simultaneously a timeless pronouncement and a living document shaping and reflecting the nation it first called into being in 1776. About the Speaker: Chandra Manning teaches U.S. history, including classes on the Civil War, slavery and emancipation, Lincoln, baseball, and the American Revolution. Her first book, What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Knopf, 2007) won the Avery O. Craven Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians, earned Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize and the Virginia Literary Awards for Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the Jefferson Davis Prize and the Frederick Douglass Prize. Her second book, Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War (Knopf, 2016), won the Jefferson Davis Prize awarded by the American Civil War Museum. Some day she hopes to write a book that is eligible for an award not named for a dead Civil War president. At Georgetown, she has been the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Gerald M. Mara Graduate Mentoring Award. She is co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a former National Park Service Ranger, and a Red Sox fan.