News release from the History Center:
Celebrating Black History Month at the History Center
(February 3, 2015) – February’s George R. Mather Lecture at the History Center, originally scheduled for February 1, has been rescheduled for Sunday, February 8 due to the winter storm. Dr. John Aden, executive director of the African/African-American Historical Society in Fort Wayne, will deliver the lecture at 2 p.m. on William Warfield.
The lecture is free and open to the public at the museum located at 302 East Berry in downtown Fort Wayne.
Warfield has been termed a “Renaissance Man of Color” and was known in Fort Wayne in the early 1900s as an entrepreneur who was well-respected in the community. Through odd jobs, Warfield purchased a 21-room, three-story home on East Douglas Street.
He also wrote several songs, which are registered with the Library of Congress, including “We Love Old Fort Wayne”. He was a writer and editor of The Vindicator, an African-American publication that began in 1913.
A Fort Wayne native, Paul Harding High School graduate and former Fulbright Fellow, Aden holds a doctorate in History from Indiana University – Bloomington with a focus on African and Chinese histories. He has worked in collections at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute Museum and the National Museum of Mali (West Africa).
This year’s Mather Lectures are featuring biographies of persons important in Allen County and Fort Wayne history. Several of the lecturers are authors presenting on their most current books.
Sponsored by the Dunsire Family Foundation, all lectures in this series are held on the first Sunday of October and November as well as January through June. The April lecture will occur one week later than usual due to the Easter holiday.
The George R. Mather Lecture Series was founded by the Rev. Mather in 1993. In the early 1990s, while serving as a member of the History Center’s board of directors, Mather proposed a series of free Sunday afternoon lectures so that everyone would have the opportunity to learn more about history that played a significant role in Fort Wayne and Allen County. Those lectures have been a staple of the History Center’s programming ever since.
The History Center’s award winning blog, “History Center Notes and Queries”, is available at https://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/. The blog supplements the Mather Lectures and the History Center’s publications such as the “Old Fort News” and provides information for those wishing to know more about our community as they explore the museum and other historical sites in the city and county. New posts to the blog can also be found via the History Center’s Facebook page and Twitter account.
For more information, contact the History Center at (260) 426-2882 or visit the website at www.fwhistorycenter.com
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