Stuart Lutz

Historic document expert Stuart Lutz will lead an illustrated talk on old letters and documents. It will include what is available in the marketplace, why the archives do not own all the historic documents, how price is determined, and how he determines if documents are authentic or not. Lutz will bring in original documents for show and tell.

Author and historian Stuart Lutz will lead an illustrated talk on his oral history book The Last Leaf: Voices Of History's Last-Known Survivors. Over a dozen years, Lutz tracked down & interviewed almost forty of the final eyewitnesses to important events. Chapters include the last Civil War widows, the final man to work for Thomas Edison, the last pitcher to surrender a home run to Babe Ruth, the final World War I soldier, the last person to perform with Houdini and much more. At the conclusion of the talk, books will be available for sale.

Historian Stuart Lutz has been building the largest private archive of papers and artifacts related to the American War in Vietnam. In his illustrated talk, he will discuss why he collects the contentious period and what his study of the artifacts tells us. Lutz has always had an interest in the period and began collecting a quarter century ago. His archive contains thousands of items, from soldier diaries, posters, letters by important figures, books, buttons and photographs. Lutz will bring in original Vietnam War artifacts for show and tell.