(often initial capital letter) a volume of articles, essays, etc., contributed by many authors in honor of a colleague, usually published on the occasion of retirement, an important anniversary, or the like
Origin:
1900–05; < G, equiv. to Fest feast, festival + Schrift writing
John Hope Franklin, Scholar Who Transformed African American History, Dies at Age 94, March 29, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. – John Hope Franklin, the scholar who helped create the field of African-American history and dominated it for nearly six decades, has died at the age of 94.
"John Hope Franklin lived for nearly a century and helped define that century," said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. "A towering historian, he led the recognition that African-American history and American history are one. With his grasp of the past, he spent a lifetime building a future of inclusiveness, fairness and equality. Duke has lost a great citizen and a great friend."
Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, was a scholar who brought intellectual rigor as well an engaged passion to his work. He wrote about history – one of his books is considered a core text on the African-American experience, more than 60 years after its publication – and he lived it.
In a nutshell, this is what the fall semester, 2009, Senior Seminar in History was all about: a festival of writing in honor of one of America’s greatest historians. Students began the semester by reading Franklin's autobiography, Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin and
Racial Equality in America: The 1976 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. They read extensively in Race and History: Selected Essays, 1938 - 1988, as well.
On the basis of these preliminary readings, students chose topics reflecting incidents in Franklin's life or his research interests and prepared their seminar papers in his honor and to his memory. I present them here, on their behalf.
