Lorri Glover, Ph.D., John Francis Bannon Endowed Chair in the Department of History from St. Louis University, will discuss her book “The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America,” as well as the Durham’s newest exhibit, “American Adventure,” at noon today in the Sorrell Center, Room 2010.
The “American Adventure” exhibit will be on display at the Durham through July 29.
The English had long dreamed of colonizing America, especially after Sir Francis Drake brought home Spanish treasure and dramatic tales from his raids in the Caribbean. Ambitions of finding gold and planting a New World colony seemed within reach when in 1606 Thomas Smythe extended overseas trade with the launch of the Virginia Company. However, from the beginning, the American enterprise was a disaster. Within two years, warfare with Indians and dissent among the settlers threatened to destroy Smythe’s Jamestown, just as it had Raleigh’s Roanoke a generation earlier.
To rescue the doomed colonists and restore order, the company chose a new leader, Thomas Gates. Nine ships left Plymouth in the summer of 1609 — the largest fleet England had ever assembled — and sailed into the teeth of a violent storm. The inspiration for Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the hurricane separated the flagship from the fleet, driving it onto reefs off the coast of Bermuda — a lucky shipwreck (all hands survived) which proved the turning point in the colony’s fortune.
The event is offered through the Time Travelers program, which provides free museum admission for UNMC employees, students, and their immediate family with a valid identification badge, while also offering lectures, workshops and other events on the medical center campus.
I thought we no longer had free admission to the Durham? or is this for this event only? please clarify…Thanks
UNMC employees, students, and their immediate family still have free admission to the Durham and Joslyn Museums. Nebraska Medicine colleagues do not.