The University of Virginia Library
is pleased to present
the eighteenth Tracy W. and Katherine W. McGregor
Distinguished Lecture in American History
THE STADIUM IN AMERICAN LIFE
with Frank Guridy
Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American
and African Diaspora Studies,
Columbia University
Monday, September 30, 2024
4:00pm Lecture | 5:00pm Reception
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
Stadiums are commonly viewed as sports and entertainment venues where fans behold breathtaking performances by athletes and concert performers. In this talk, Frank Guridy will show how stadiums have played a much larger role in American history. They are unique gathering places where elites and governments project their power and where the marginalized and dispossessed express their desires and discontents. Stadiums have been barometers of the state of democracy and the fate of the nation since they first emerged as makeshift wooden structures in the late 19th century.
About the McGregor Fund and the Tracy W. McGregor Library
The Tracy W. and Katherine W. McGregor Distinguished Lecture in American History was endowed by the McGregor Fund, established in 1925 by Detroit philanthropists Tracy McGregor and Katherine Whitney McGregor to support charitable works in their areas of interest.
Tracy W. McGregor was initially attracted to book collecting through his love of English literature, though American history eventually took precedence. In the decade before his death in 1936, McGregor formed an outstanding collection of over 5,000 rare works of Americana and 1,000 rare volumes of English literature, which he intended to donate to a deserving southern university. In 1938 the McGregor Fund selected the UVA Library as the collection’s permanent home. Since then, in addition to endowing the McGregor Lecture, the McGregor Fund has established an endowment for the Tracy W. McGregor Library, which has more than quadrupled in size; provided funding to transform the McGregor Room into the UVA community’s favorite reading room; and most recently supported the digitization of over 500 of the McGregor Library’s most significant books.
For more information, contact Holly Thornhill, Senior Associate Director for Donor Relations, at library_events@virginia.edu.