Lafayette Celebrates Birthday of Marquis de Lafayette

In honor of the Marquis de Lafayette’s birthday on September 6 (he would have been 255 this year) Lafayette College is hosting two distinguished speakers who will present their research on selected aspects of Lafayette’s life and his American experience.

Alan R. Hoffman, president of the American Friends of Lafayette, who also serves as president of the Massachusetts Lafayette Society, will speak at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 6 on “Lafayette: A Symbol of Franco-American Friendship,” in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library. Hoffman is also the translator of Auguste Levasseur’s account of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour, which is in its second printing. Levasseur was Lafayette’s secretary.

Patrick Villiers, Professor of History, University Littoral-côte d’Opale, Boulogne-sur-mer, and Director of Research Center for the History of the Atlantic Cost, France, will present the lecture, “From Childhood to Valley Forge: Lafayette’s First Trip to America,” at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 10 in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library.

Villiers has published extensively on Lafayette’s friendship with George Washington. His latest book includes newly discovered archival documents on Lafayette’s education, military training, and his first trip to America.

The lectures are free and open to the public.

These events will be sponsored by the Office of the President, the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, The Friends of Skillman Library, and the Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Studies Program at Lafayette College.

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Kathleen Parrish
Associate Director of Media Relations
Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042
(610) 330-5524
parrishk@lafayette.edu
www.lafayette.edu