Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will be guest speaker for February event

CURATOR EMERITUS AT THE SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY WILL BE GUEST SPEAKER FOR FEBRUARY EVENT SPONSORED BY THE GUILD OF MUSEUM FRIENDS

On Thursday, February 5, 2009, Edith P. Mayo, Curator Emeritus in Political History at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, will be the guest speaker for The Guild of Museum Friends' monthly meeting. The public is invited to attend this special event.

Ms. Mayo will discuss "Presidential Familes," which is also the title of her book, published in 2006, by HarperCollins Publishers. The lecture, which will take place at 10:30 am at The First United Methodist Church, located at 201 South Road Street in Elizabeth City, will be followed by a luncheon. Tickets are $15 for the lecture and luncheon and can be purchased at Museum of the Albemarle—and on the day of the event, at the door at First United Methodist. Page After Page bookstore will provide copies of the companion book, Presidential Families, available for purchase at the event.

A graduate of George Washington University, Ms. Mayo has curated major exhibitions on political history, voting rights, and women's history including "The Right To Vote" (1972), a history of voting rights in the United States; "We The People" (1975), on the American people and their government; "We'll Never Turn Back" (1980), an exhibition on Civil Rights; "We The People: Winning The Vote" (1987), an exploration of formal and informal constitutional process which evolved over 200 years of the nation's history; and "From Parlor to Politics: Women and Reform in America, 1890-1925" (1990), on women's reform and politics at the turn of the 20th century. She also reconceptualized the Smithsonian's famous First Ladies exhibition, "First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image" (1992).

As a consultant, Ms. Mayo curated "Rights for Women" (1998), a major exhibition on women's suffrage, for the World Financial Center in New York, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the US women's rights movement. Her 1999 exhibition, "The Pleasure of Your Company," for the Museum of Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, explored the political impact of the First Lady's social role. In 2002, Ms. Mayo completed a major traveling exhibition on women business entrepreneurs entitled, "Enterprising Women," for the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University.

A popular lecturer on women's history and the First Ladies, Ms. Mayo serves as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She has written articles on women's history, the First Ladies, museum curatorship, and collecting, as well as another book, The Smithsonian's Book of First Ladies: Their Lives, Times, and Issues, published in 1995, by the Smithsonian Press and Henry Holt.

For more information, please contact Simone Cooper at (252) 338-6389 or at chicantiquer@aol.com.