HomeMy Public PortalAboutTOL NR 2022-10-19 Lecture on Year of Frightful Calamities Scheduled at Thomas Balch Library
Town of Leesburg
News Release
For Immediate Release
October 19, 2022
Media Contact:
Leah Kosin, Assistant Public Information Officer
pio@leesburgva.gov 703-771-2781
Lecture on Year of Frightful Calamities Scheduled at Thomas
Balch Library
Leesburg, VA (October 19, 2022) – Alyssa Fahringer will
present her lecture, “A Year of Frightful Calamities:
Disasters and Reconstruction in Richmond, 1870” on
Sunday, October 23, beginning at 2 p.m. EDT.
In 1870, Richmond, former capital of the Confederacy,
endured three disasters. On April 27, over sixty people died
when the Capitol courtroom gallery and floor collapsed; the
James River flooded on September 30, resulting in
thousands of dollars of damage; and eight people perished
when Spotswood Hotel caught fire December 25.
This presentation will discuss how Richmonders experienced, responded to, and remembered
the 1870 calamities, as well as how the disasters affected a community in a time of extreme
political and racial upheaval.
Pre-registration is required for the event. Please call 703-737-7195, email
balchlib@leesburgva.gov, or register online.
Alyssa Toby Fahringer has a PhD in American history with minor fields in digital humanities and
public history from George Mason University. She holds a faculty appointment as the Digital
Scholarship Consultant at George Mason University Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Center.
Fahringer is also affiliated with the Center for Mason Legacies, an interdisciplinary and
collaborative research center established by the University Libraries and the College of
Humanities and Social Sciences whose mission is to preserve and examine the legacy of George
Mason IV (1725-1792), his ancestors and heirs, and the people he enslaved.
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