McGinty Lecture focusing on Edith Wharton’s mission to aid France
Dr. Maureen Montgomery, Salve Regina’s first McGinty Distinguished Chair in History, will present the spring McGinty Lecture, “An American Witness: Edith Wharton and World War One” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 16 in the Ochre Court state dining room.
As seating is very limited, those interested in attending are asked to RSVP at salve.edu/mcginty.
Soon after expatriating herself to France in 1913, Edith Wharton found herself swept up in the maelstrom that hit Paris as it mobilized for war. Her response was to put into action her amazing organizational skills, to respond to the plight of displaced peoples, unemployed Parisian women, and people with tuberculosis. She worked tirelessly in raising funds for her war charities. In addition to all this, she wielded her pen to persuade her fellow Americans of the necessity to come to the aid of France, not just with money and supplies but also militarily.
Established in honor of the late John E. McGinty, former trustee and parent of John W. McGinty ’01, the McGinty Chair furthers the educational advancement of undergraduate students in the areas of American studies, cultural and historic preservation and history. Montgomery was selected as the first chair holder following a nationwide search, and will serve through the 2014-2015 academic year.
A longtime professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Montgomery has taught and served in a variety of positions there over the last 28 years. She has published three books, including “Gilded Prostitution: Status, Money and Transatlantic Marriages, 1870-1914,” based on her doctoral dissertation at University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, and “Displaying Women: Spectacles of Leisure in Edith Wharton’s New York,” the winner of a New York Society Library Award.
