The U.S. Grant Symposium

This year's U. S. Grant Symposium returns to its roots as a presentation for a live audience. For those who can't make it to St. Louis in July, know that the presentation will be filmed and will be available for viewing on the Missouri Humanities website, www.mohumanities.org. Once again, the Symposium is a co-production of the National U. S. Grant Trail Association and Missouri Humanities, and is hosted by the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum in St. Louis.

Mark your calendars! The tenth U. S. Grant Symposium is set for Friday, July 21 in St. Louis. Watch here for coming news.

The Civil Rights Amendments transformed this nation: The 13th which abolished slavery; the 14th, which promised equal protection by the laws of the states; The 15th, establishing universal male suffrage. President Ulysses Grant came to the fore near the end of this process, but he was "all-in."

Join the U S Grant Symposium on July 23, 2022 as our virtual guest by clicking here: https://mohumanities.org/grant-symposium/

Don't miss Silvana Sildali's talk, "A Measure of Grand Importance: Grant
and the 15th Amendment" which begins at 10:55 a.m. Central,

Ulysses Grant's St. Louis is ready for you. In addition to the Symposium, see what our great institutions have in store for visitors the weekend. This is not to mention the National Historic Site that is devoted to his life and legacy. Contact the Campbell House Museum at [email protected] for more information or to reserve a spot.

More Bicentennial news:

He is known throughout the Midwest and South for his stunning portrayals of Ulysses Grant. The National Park Service took note many years ago, in 2015, choosing Curt Fields to portray General Grant at the 150th anniversary commemoration of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. If you can attend the 9th annual U S Grant Symposium in person, join us in St. Louis on July 23, 2022. To register to attend (either in person or virtually) visit the website of Missouri Humanities, here: www.mohumanities.org/grant-symposium/

Curt attended the U S Grant Symposium in 2017 when it was held in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He is pictured below with Ronald C. White, Jr., the Keynote Speaker that year. Uncanny!

JOIN THE U S GRANT SYMPOSIUM ON JULY 23 (remote access instructions to follow)

A trio of Amendments to the United States Constitution, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, were enacted and ratified in the years 1865 to 1870. Although Ulysses Grant was President when the 14th Amendment took effect several months into his first term, it was the 15th Amendment that bears his stamp. Declaring universal male suffrage – woman of all races lost an argument in the process – ratification of the 15th Amendment has hailed by Grant in a special message he sent to Congress on March 30, 1870: “…the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.”

Dr. Silvana Siddali is a professor of history at St. Louis University, who writes widely and lectures extensively about the political, social, and military history of the United States during the nineteenth century. Dr. Siddali fills the 11:00 a.m. slot (Central Time) at this year’s U.S. Grant Symposium.

The largest mausoleum in the Western Hemisphere struggled to exist before it opened to the public in 1897. Constructed entirely from donations by private admirers of Ulysses Grant, it took a dozen years, after his death in 1885, for the promoters to raise the funds, hire the architect and see the construction through to the end. For about thirty years after that, Grant’s Tomb was an attraction that regularly out-drew the Statue of Liberty. It began to decline in the 1930s, and by the 1970s it was an eyesore. Thanks to the Grant Monument Association, Manhattan’s Upper West Side has its most famed attraction back.