First Speaker in Series on John Adams Here Sept. 15

Robert McColley, History Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will present the first lecture about John Adams at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, on the main floor of Milner Library at Illinois State University.

His talk, titled "John Adams, The Cautious Revolutionary," is part of a lecture series offered in conjunction with the "John Adams Unbound" traveling panel exhibit being shown at Milner Library through Oct. 16.  Admission to McColley's lecture and to the exhibit is free and open to the public.

McColley spent the 1950s studying history at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the History department of the University of Illinois in 1960 and retired in 1997.  As a teacher and author, his specialties have included colonial and early national slavery, the politics and foreign policies of the Founding Fathers, and the career of Abraham Lincoln and the history of Illinois in the Twentieth Century.

McColley has served as president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic and the Illinois State Historical Society, and edited the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society for four years. For 17 years he contributed reviews of classical recordings to Fanfare, the magazine for serious record collectors.

The other lectures in the series are Sept. 22: "John Adams, Lawyer and Political Scientist," Susan Westbury, 7 p.m., Milner Library, main floor;  Sept. 29: "John Adams and the Origins of American Diplomacy," W. Michael Weis, Illinois Wesleyan University, Ames Library, Beckman Auditorium; and Oct. 8: "John Adams and the Illinois Country: The Influence of a Gentle Nationalist," Junius Rodriguez, 7:30 p.m., Eureka College, Melick Library, Gammon Room.

"John Adams Unbound" is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.  The panel exhibit focuses on Adams' 3,500-volume personal library that his family donated in 1894 to the Boston Public Library.