Southeast's Heritage Hall to host Ulysses Grant symposium

Editor's note: The following story has been edited to correct certain details about the reception.

Civil War general and 18th U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant will be the focus of a symposium Tuesday featuring local and visiting historians.

The Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation is hosting the fourth annual exhibition, which begins Friday at Heritage Hall at 102 N. Main St. and includes a symposium Tuesday. The exhibition runs through November.

Area historian and Kellerman Foundation president Frank Nickell will detail Grant's personal historical involvement with Southeast Missouri during the Civil War when the symposium begins at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Heritage Hall. Grant briefly established an office in Cape Girardeau during the war.

After Nickell, Greg Wolk, heritage resources coordinator for the Missouri Humanities Council, will deliver a presentation titled "On the Trail with U.S. Grant," followed by Darrel Dexter's presentation "Grant in Egypt."

A reception will be held at Heritage Hall from 3:30 to 5 p.m., followed by music by Cathy Barton and Dave Para from their album "Civil War Music of the Western Border" at the Common Pleas Courthouse.

Acclaimed Grant biographer Ronald C. White Jr. will deliver the keynote address, "Ulysses S. Grant: a Fresh Vision for American Leadership."

White recently published "American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant," which was a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Military History Book Prize.

The exhibition at Heritage Hall includes an early 20th-century scrapbook of newspaper clippings featuring Grant, sculptures and other memorabilia.

It was curated by California collector Candace Scott, who has collected Grant-themed memorabilia for about 40 years.

Admission is free. In addition to the Kellerman Foundation, the event is sponsored by The State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri's Civil War Heritage Foundation, Visit Cape, the Missouri Humanities Council, U.S. Grant Trail and Holiday Inn Express.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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