This year’s Fifth Annual Appalachian Lecture in British History took place on Thursday, April 27, 2017 in Belk Library and Information Commons. This year’s speaker was Dr. Jason White, assistant professor of history at Appalachian State University. His talk, “Between Two Worlds: The English Levant Company and the Ottoman Empire, 1581–1688,” educated attendees about the Levant Company and imports from the Ottoman Empire.
Dr. Jason White starts his lecture with a reference to currents…and California Raisins.
Dr. White has discovered that currants were a popular import of the Levant Company. To engage his audience with the feel of the time period, he passed around a box of Zante currants for all to try.
Prior to the lecture, Rhinehart Collection books related to the evening’s lecture were on display in the Rhinehart Room on the Library’s 4th floor. Collector and donor Bill Rhinehart was in town to participate in the evening’s events. He agreed to sit for an informal photograph during the open house.
Bill Rhinehart during the rare books open house in the Rhinehart Room.
The Appalachian British History Lecture is organized annually by Roy Carroll Distinguished Professor of British History Dr. Michael Turner, in collaboration with Belk Library and Information Commons.
Contributed by Greta Browning, Reference and Instruction Archivist