Scholar to present program about Lincoln monuments
In honor of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, Aurora University will host "Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments," a lecture by Lincoln scholar James A. Percoco at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Crimi Auditorium in the Institute for Collaboration, 407 S. Calumet Ave. in Aurora.
The event is offered in conjunction with the Aurora Public Art Commission. Admission is free, but reservations are required. Call (630) 844-4924 or e-mail artsandideas@aurora.edu. The program is part of AU's 2008-2009 Celebrating Arts and Ideas series.
About 200 statues were erected in memory of Abraham Lincoln - more than any other American. Anticipating the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, Percoco, a history teacher with a passion for both Lincoln and public sculpture, explored what some of the monuments meant when they were unveiled and what they mean today.
In a presentation based on his third book, "Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments," Percoco will chronicle the history of seven emblematic monuments, spotlighting their artistic, social, political and cultural origins.
Percoco is a member of the advisory board of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. In addition to Summers with Lincoln, published in 2008, Percoco's writings have also appeared in The Washington Times and American Art Review.
He has taught at West Springfield (Va.) High School since 1980. The recipient of numerous education awards, Percoco was selected for the first USA TODAY All-USA Teacher Team in 1998 and named Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year in 1993 at the Walt Disney Company American Teacher Awards.
His first book, "A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History" (1998), received the 2000 James Harvey Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association.
An advocate for promoting good history education, Percoco has served as an educational consultant for the National Archives and Records Administration, where he received the Archivist's Award of Achievement in 1993, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Since 1991, students in his nationally recognized Applied History, an academically rigorous high school public history program, have contributed more than 20,000 hours to historic sites, museums and history agencies in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
His second book, "Divided We Stand: Teaching about Conflict in U.S. History," was published in 2001. Percoco and his 2007 Applied History class can be seen in Paul Sanderson's latest documentary, "Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture," for which Percoco also served as an advisor.