The Shockoe ExaminerBlogging the History of Richmond, Virginia: "Lewis Ginter" author speaks and signs books 2 pm - Oct. 28, 2011 - James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries

Monday, October 17, 2011

"Lewis Ginter" author speaks and signs books 2 pm - Oct. 28, 2011 - James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries

Brian Burns will discuss his just-published book, Lewis Ginter: Richmond's Gilded Age Icon, at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28th in the second floor multi-purpose room of the James Branch Cabell Library. A reception and book signing will follow the lecture at 3 p.m. in Special Collections and Archives on the fourth floor. The events are free and open to the public.

The author used the VCU Libraries' Special Collections and Archives (and other Richmond area institutions) during the research phase for the book.

"As a war hero, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Lewis Ginter was many things to Richmond. Ginter was the first major marketer of the hand-rolled cigarette in America. He developed one of America's first streetcar suburbs and built the magnificent Jefferson Hotel, a symbol of Richmond's ambition and prosperity. But beyond the well-known history of this River City icon, there are many aspects of his personal and professional life that few know about. Join local writer Brian Burns as he delves into the hidden history of Ginter's extraordinary life to fill in the gaps between Ginter the man and Ginter the legend."

Author Brian Burns has lived in Richmond since 1987. He lives in Bellevue, one of the neighborhoods that Lewis Ginter pioneered.

Let Ray know if you have any questions - rfbonis@vcu.edu

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Contributors:

Ray Bonis:

Ray worked at VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library from 1989 until 2021. He is the co-author of Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and Greetings from Richmond (2009) - an architectural history of the city.

Selden Richardson:

Architectural historian and author of Built By Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia (2006), The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression. (2012), and Richmond Murder & Mayhem (2023)

On History:

"The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today...The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow."
-- G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) from his "Autobiography of an Historian," An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Key Dates in Richmond History
(more to follow)

1737 – William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond on land provided by William Byrd II.

1742 – Chartered as a town

1780 – Virginia’s state capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.

1782 – Incorporated as a city.

1788 - Virginia State Capitol building completed.

1860-1865 – Serves as capital of the Confederate States of America.

1910 - Manchester, the city located just south of the James, is consolidated with Richmond.

1949 - Oliver Hill (1907-2007) elected to City Council, first African American since Reconstruction.

1968 - Virginia Commonwealth University created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Professional Institute.

1977 - Henry Marsh elected as first African American mayor of Richmond.

2009 – Shockoe Examiner founded.