Vermont

Call For Papers: When The French Were Here

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As part of the quadricentennial of Samuel de Champlain’s exploration of Lake Champlain, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont is hosting an international academic symposium on July 2-5, 2009. Scholars from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are invited to participate.

The theme, “When the French Were Here,” invites the broadest possible consideration of Samuel de Champlain’s achievements, his life, and of his world as a cultural, social and ideological context.

Scholars wishing to participate should submit an abstract of no more than 200 words, along with a CV by October 1, 2008. Papers to be read will be of fifteen to twenty minutes in length, roughly two thousand words. After the conference, the papers read will be collected and published as conference proceedings.

Abstract submission information can be found online.

The conference hopes to encourage talks from a variety of perspectives that examine Samuel de Champlain and the lake that bears his name. Paper topics might include (but are not limited to):

* Life and achievements of Samuel de Champlain
* France at the time of Samuel de Champlain
* Exploration of the New World — background
* Navigation history
* Military history
* Social history
* Maps and mapmaking
* Contact of civilizations
* Previous centennial celebrations
* “New France” and “New England”
* History, geology and culture of Lake Champlain

The Big 400: Champlain Descendants Still Local

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2009 will mark the celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival on the big lake, Henry Hudson’s on the big river, and the 200th Anniversary of Fulton’s steamship. Both New York and Vermont will be celebrating Champlain.

Here is an interesting article in the Plattsburgh Press Republican about the family of Champlain’s 12-year-old bride Helene Boulle, daughter of Nicholas Boulle. Helene’s nephew Robert was the first of the family to travel to America and his descendants are still in the area:

Helene was married to the 43-year-old explorer when she was 12 but remained with her parents for a few years after the wedding because of her age&#8230-

Robert Boulle farmed land on the Isle of Orleans in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City, and that 160-tract of land is still intact, said Boule, who visited the property in the mid-1990s&#8230-

Helene Boulle accompanied Champlain to the area in 1620, but returned to France in 1624.