AU FIRST LADY NELL RICHARDSON TO GIVE SESQUICENTENNIAL LECTURE
Auburn University’s First Lady Nell Campbell Richardson will present “The President’s Home and Auburn’s First Ladies,” at 2 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 7, in the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph B. Draughon Library. Her presentation concludes AU’s Sesquicentennial Lecture Series.
A reception will follow at the president’s home with transportation provided from the library by shuttle service.
Richardson will talk about the nine families who have lived in the president’s home since President Luther Duncan built the house in 1939, as well as the setting of the house and its structure, garden and furnishings. She will also focus on the first ladies who lived there, noting their contributions to the town and the university community.
In her extensive research and writing over the past nine months, Richardson studied Auburn’s history to determine how she might approach a history of the president’s home and the people who lived there from 1939 to 2006.
“I undertook this project because I wondered what life as first lady had been like in the past,” said Richardson.
During the reception at the president’s home, Richardson will unveil portraits of the three first ladies who lived in the house the longest: Annie Smith Duncan, Caroline Marshall Draughon and Pauline Moran Philpott.
“Each of these ladies served Auburn without pay for fifteen years or more,” said Richardson. “In having their portraits made to hang in the president’s home, I hoped to honor the house itself and Auburn University with works of art as a reminder that the these ladies were once living treasures who served Auburn well.”
Richardson serves as honorary chair of AU’s Sesquicentennial Committee. Born in Selma, she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Auburn. She taught English and French until retiring in 2004 to join her husband when he was named AU’s interim president.
Each of the lectures in the Sesquicentennial Series has been videotaped and copies are available at Ralph Brown Draughon Library.
For more information call (334) 844-4946. The lectures are sponsored by the Auburn University Libraries, AU Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, AU Outreach and the AU Sesquicentennial Committee.
