Saturday Speaker Series - The Civil War in Washington Territory

This territory, so distant from “back East,” participated fully in the Civil War though no battles were fought here. From issues of race and slavery, secession and widespread resignations, treason and press suppression, Washington Territorial settlers held strong opinions during the antebellum, wartime, and Reconstruction periods. 

Speaker bio:

Lorraine McConaghy is a public historian who earned her PhD from the University of Washington. At the Museum of History & Industry and Washington State History Museum, her work as historian and curator has dealt with Washington at war during the Treaty War of 1855-1856, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. She has participated in working groups concerning the opportunities of commemoration, and presented lectures and workshops on readers’ theater programs at National Council on Public History, American Association for State and Local History, and the Washington Museum Association. In 2009, her readers’ theater script, Speaking Out, won the national performance award from the Oral History Association. In 2015, AASLH honored her Voices of the Civil War with a national award of merit. McConaghy’s work has been honored by the Washington State Historical Society’s Robert Gray Medal, the annual award of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild, and the Humanities Washington Award.

McConaghy has continued to research the biographies of the African-Canadian men who created the Puget Sound “Underground Railroad,” as well as the biography of Richard Dickerson Gholson, Washington Territory’s third governor who resigned the position to join the Confederate States of America.