Dixie State University Library’s 38th annual Juanita Brooks Lecture Series will host Dr. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who is most recognized for coining the popular phrase, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”
Dr. Ulrich will explore the Southern Utah murder of Olivia Coombs, whose admitted killer, George Wood, was granted a full pardon three years after he pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. The address is set to take place at 6 p.m. on March 25 via electronic broadcast. A question and answer period with the speaker will follow the presentation. The lecture is free and the public is welcome to tune in.
“We are ecstatic to have someone of the caliber Dr. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich join us for this year’s lecture,” Kelly Peterson-Fairchild, dean of library and learning services at DSU, said. “This promises to be a thrilling exploration of a long-forgotten event in our area’s history.”
Dr. Ulrich will retell Coombs’ story, using diaries and family legends to explore the possible motivations behind Wood’s actions and the outcomes of Coombs’ murder. The lecture will shed light on how this story displays the interplay of gender, violence and politics during a time the nation was on the brink of Civil War.
Dr. Ulrich is a 300th Anniversary University Professor Emerita at Harvard University. Her work “A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812” won the Pulitzer Prize for History and many other awards in 1991. Her most recent book, “A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870,” explores the paradoxical link between the practice of polygamy in Utah Territory and the adoption of women suffrage in 1870. She has received numerous awards for teaching, scholarship and public service.
The Juanita Brooks Lecture Series celebrates the life and work of its namesake. Brooks, a historian whose work is well received by other historians and changed the landscape of LDS history, became a role model for LDS historians and women in research and academia. The annual lecture series is possible thanks to an endowment from Obert C. Tanner.
Tune into Dixie State University Library’s 38th annual Juanita Brooks Lecture Series at dixiestate.zoom.us/j/82058761072.