Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Frank and Gloria Womble

This is the eighteenth in a series of articles leading up to the Lafayette Farewell Tour Bicentennial celebration. For earlier articles, see suffolkva250/history

The Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts will open a new five-week exhibit, “Celebrate Lafayette: Soldier, Statesman, Champion of Human Rights” on Thursday, Jan. 23 with a free reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The presenting sponsor for the evening is TowneBank. This unique exhibit, which will run through March 1, includes Lafayette memorabilia, a detailed map of the Farewell Tour route through the 24 states that Lafayette visited, the American Friends of Lafayette’s (AFL) traveling panels, and artwork relating to Lafayette. The opening night reception includes French inspired appetizers, three Lafayette wines from the Williamsburg Winery, and “Heart of Lafayette” limited release beer from Post Secondary Brewing in Portsmouth. A pianist will entertain with music that Lafayette would have heard. AFL board member Frank Womble will give an update on Lafayette bicentennial events in Suffolk. Please register at Lafayette200.org/events.

Several special presentations are planned throughout the month of February. 

On Feb. 6, from 6 until 7 p.m., Julie Dunn, local researcher and member of Portsmouth’s Hill House Museum Board, will hold a lecture on decorations that were prominent during Lafayette’s 1825 visit, such as signs, luminaries, and transparencies. She will also address how Lafayette’s visit started the souvenir industry in the United States. 

On Feb. 12 at 10:30 a.m., interpreter Steven Alexander will take children Grades 5 through 8 on a journey through the life of a true American hero, double agent James Fayette. James’ relationship with Gen. Lafayette is highlighted as he tells of the unlikely friendship of two patriots, one of noble birth and the other born enslaved. Registration is required at suffolkcenter.org for this free event, which is open to the public. 

On Feb. 13, from 6 until 7 p.m., Dr. Natasha Naujoks, Public Engagement and Learning Assistant at Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art, addresses Lafayette’s legacy and his impact on the history of the United States and France.

The exhibit highlights memorabilia from the Farewell Tour and other vintage items on loan from William W. Cole. Cole is a native of Southampton County, Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1970 and is an active supporter of his alma mater. His 23-year career with Colonial Williamsburg began as a waiter at the King’s Arms Tavern in 1966.  He later became Assistant Director of Exhibition Buildings and Education Specialist in the foundation’s Department of Historic Area Programs.

Cole has been a lifelong accumulator of Virginiana, including maps, prints, sheet music, documents and signatures, Yorktown items, furniture, Native American materials, and much more.  He comments: “Concentrating on ‘anything Lafayette’, I created the accumulation of things you see in this exhibit. The variety and eccentricity of the items are of more interest than the value of any particular item. Some call the items trivia; I call them trophies. I am especially enamored of the items relating Lafayette to Yorktown. The lustre pitcher which shows the surrender scene in Yorktown on one side and the image of Lafayette on the other, the Le Mire ‘Liberte’ print, and the one dollar bill showing Lafayette in Yorktown are among my favorites. I hope that you will share some of the pleasure that I have had in finding them and in displaying them in Suffolk to commemorate Lafayette’s 1825 visit.”

There are three additional events celebrating the bicentennial of Lafayette’s visit:

 The Suffolk Visitor Center will welcome Lafayette on Sunday, Feb. 23, from 1 until 4 p.m.at the former site of the Nansemond County Courthouse, where he arrived in 1825. Lafayette will travel down Main Street in a horse-drawn carriage and be greeted at a ceremony featuring reenactors and period music. 

Lafayette will be celebrated at a banquet on Tuesday, Feb. 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Suffolk Riverfront. Tickets for the banquet are available at the Suffolk Visitor Center for $75.00, or at Lafayette200.org/events.

Lafayette’s visit here concludes on Wednesday, Feb. 26, from 11:00 to noon, with his introduction to the Murfreesboro, NC delegation on the grounds of the Washington Smith Ordinary in Somerton. 

 

The American Friends of Lafayette is partnering with Suffolk 250, the Constantia Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Riddick’s Folly, Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, and the Suffolk Nansemond Historical Society to commemorate the Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour.

 

The American Friends of Lafayette is partnering with Suffolk 250, the Constantia Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Riddick’s Folly, Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, and the Suffolk Nansemond Historical Society to commemorate the Bicentennial of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour.