Museum of Riverside

Author Talk: Edwin Hall Higley

Author Talk & Book Signing
Vermont’s Proper Son: The Letters of Soldier and Scholar Edwin Hall Higley, 1861-1871

Date: Thursday, October 2, 2014  (During Riverside Arts Walk)
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Ages: Best suited for teen and adults. All children (under 18) must be accompanied by an adult (18+).
Book: Dr. Hank's book will be on sale in the Museum Gift Shop. Regularly $19.99 (Receive a Special Event Discount of 40% off) Cash/Credit Card accepted.

"Vermont’s Proper Son: The Letters of Soldier and Scholar Edwin Hall Higley, 1861-1871" follows the life of Edwin Hall Higley who served as 2nd lieutenant in the First Vermont Cavalry during the Civil War. During the war, Higley wrote several letters to close friend Calvin Day Noble, a bulk of which concern his time in various battles in Virginia. Noble eventually moved to Riverside in 1874, bringing the letters with him. The Riverside Metropolitan Museum acquired the letters in 2000 as a part of the Samuel Cary Evans, Jr. Collection. The transcriptions for all the letters concerning the war are printed in full.  In addition to serving in the Civil War, Higley later became a professor of German and Greek  and was on the staff of Groton School in Massachusetts when he died.


About The Author
Upon receiving his Master’s Degree in 1998, Richard Hanks was hired as a public historian and archivist for the Riverside Local History Resource Center and a year later he got the opportunity to lead this talented group of historians and archivists. It was there that he first read the collection of Civil War letters from Edwin H. Higley in the Samuel C. Evans papers. For the next decade he continued to work as an archivist for the RLHRC in Riverside, A.K. Smiley Public Library and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands, California. In 2006,  he earned a PhD in Native American History. He went on to teach American History and Native American Studies at various community colleges and in 2012 he published his dissertation, This War Is For A Whole Life: The Culture of Resistance Among Southern California Indians, 1850-1866 with Ushkana Press of Banning, California. In December 2013, Hanks retired to concentrate on his writing. He was asked to write a book based on the Higley letters, by the Riverside Metropolitan Museum which houses the collection.