Join the U.S. Capitol Historical Society for an engaging presentation from Dr. Matthew Restall. Matthew Restall is Sparks Professor of History and Anthropology at Penn State. The author of When Montezuma Met Cortés, of The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus, and of two dozen other books, he is the USCHS’s current research fellow.
A couple of months ago, the president proclaimed his intent to resurrect Columbus Day “from the ashes,” declaring that “Christopher is going to make a major comeback.” A few months before that, however, an earlier POTUS spent five days in the Capitol Rotunda, coffin-bound, overlooked by no less than three renditions of Christopher Columbus—the oldest of which has been in the Rotunda for two centuries. Can the famous (or, to some, infamous) Discoverer make a comeback, or did he never go away?
And if he’s always been here, how did a Genoese mariner who never set foot anywhere that became the United States become an iconic American hero—let alone one that can prompt political controversy 520 years after his death? Historical Society fellow Prof. Matthew Restall hereby tackles these questions, paying particular attention to the art of the Capitol.
Like all U.S. Capitol Historical Society events, this lecture is free and open to the public. Registration is required.
