Calendar of Events

Heroines of Mercy Street Lecture

Title:Heroines of Mercy Street Lecture
Date & Time:Thu Feb 4, 2016 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:Lyceum
201 S. Washington St.
Event Details:“Heroines of Mercy Street,” a new book by historian Pamela Toler, tells the true stories of some of the remarkable women who worked as nurses at the Mansion House Hospital, Alexandria’s largest during the Civil War. Most of these women had little or no experience with nursing, but they wanted to serve their country and do something to help ease the enormous suffering from disease and battlefield wounds during the conflict. They often taught themselves nursing under adverse circumstances, including active hostility from the surgeons they worked with, and helped to create a profession that did not exist before the war.

“Heroines of Mercy Street” is a companion history to the new PBS drama “Mercy Street,” which airs at 10 PM beginning on January 17th. The book will not be available to the public until February 16, 2016, but The Lyceum and other Historic Alexandria museum stores will have it on the shelves after that date. While you’re here, you can also view the new exhibition “The Real Mercy Street: Alexandria’s Nurses & Hospitals During the Civil War” on view by The Lyceum Museum Store, and find many other books related to the war and nurses of the period.

Pamela D. Toler is the author of The Everything Guide to Socialism, Mankind: The Story of All of Usand most recently, Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War. Toler grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where she participated in living history programs at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, learned to shoot a muzzle-loading rifle, and read and re-read the biographies of women like Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her life as a history buff took an abrupt turn when she fell in love with Rudyard Kipling's Kim. It was the first step on the path to a PhD in South Asia history and a lifelong fascination with the times and places where two cultures meet and change each other.

These days she focuses on historical figures that step outside the constraints of their time . With Heroines of Mercy Street, Toler has returned to her first historical love: the Civil War in general and its impact on women in particular.

Explore the Sites and Stories that Inspired PBS’ Mercy Street
PBS’ Mercy Street is inspired by real events in Civil War Alexandria, Virginia. Explore the real historic sites and stories in Alexandria, with more than two dozen new tours, exhibits and events featured atwww.VisitalexandriaVA.com/MercyStreet.

Links:
Contact Person:Jim Mackay
Contact Phone No.:703.746.4994
Fees:$10
Audience:Anyone may attend
Tags:Lyceum, Museums, Old & Historic Alexandria, Old Town


For event details visit http://www.alexandriava.gov/c/12124
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