Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2000
Dr. Russell E. Martin, assistant professor of history at ¾¨Ó㴫ý, will present the 2000 Henderson Lecture, Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. in Beeghly Theater.
Martin's topic, "Picking a Bride for the Tsar," examines the belief that the Russian "Bride Shows" of the 16th and 17th centuries, were more than a beauty contest of all the eligible young women of the country. His research of Russian archives reveals that choosing of the bride was a political event designed to bring only elite young ladies to the attention of the Tsar because her family would have considerable power after the wedding.
Martin, who has been with ¾¨Ó㴫ý since 1996, earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and his master's and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
At Harvard, Martin earned a pair of Distinction in Teaching Awards, and has published numerous articles on Russian and European history. He has also lectured internationally, and was an expert witness in a Canadian civil trial about the Russian royal family.
Martin is the co-founder of the Muscovite Biographical Database, a Russian-American computerized register based in Moscow of early modern Russian notables, and was featured as an expert on the 1997 A&E Biography on Ivan the Terrible. The Neville Island, Pa. native is fluent in Russian, and also reads Old Church Slavonic/Russian, French, German, Latin, and Polish.
The Henderson Lecture, founded by Dr. Joseph R. Henderson and his wife, Elizabeth, was established to encourage and recognize original and continuing research and scholarship among ¾¨Ó㴫ý faculty, and to afford the opportunity for faculty to share their learning with the academic community.
Dr. Henderson, professor Emeritus of education at ¾¨Ó㴫ý, served as chair of the Department of Education and director of the Graduate Program.
