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56 THE CAPITOL DOME The U.S. Capitol Historical Society has been pleased to offer a number of lectures and book talks, as well as the annual scholarly symposium, over recent months. Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow discussed his book on Montgomer y Meigs, and author Carl Adams detailed his jour ney into the stor y of an enslaved Illinois woman, Nance, and Abraham Lincoln's legal work on her behalf. Noted historian Harold Holzer delivered the annual Black History Month lecture; he discussed images of Abraham Lincoln that appear in the Capitol. Paul Polgar of the University of Mississippi spoke about the First Congress and its debates about race and slavery. The annual symposium in May marked the start of a new series of symposia that will focus on different aspects or periods of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. Keynote speaker Eric Foner (Columbia Univer- sity) set the scene with his discussion of Reconstruction history and scholarship on May 11. The May 12 portion of the event featured six additional speakers from across the country: L. Diane Barnes (Youngstown State Uni- versity), Spencer Crew (George Mason University), Paul Finkelman (University of Pittsburgh School of Law), Lucy Salyer (University of New Hampshire), Brook Thomas (University of California, Irvine), and Michael Vorenberg (Brown University). They addressed a variety of related topics, including art about Recon- Eric Foner During the symposium, Chief Historian Chuck diGiacoman- tonio (right) presented the first place award to one of the winners, Fafa Nutor, of the 2014-15 Making Democracy Work Essay Contest. She read a portion of her essay to the audience. Congratulations, Fafa! The other first place win- ner, Sophia Chen, received her award during a separate visit to Washington. Harold Holzer (center) talks with lecture attendees. U.S. Capitol Historical Society Programs Feature Speakers, Book Talks, Discussions (Chairman, U.S. Capitol Historical Society), Dr. Curtis Sandberg (Director, the David M. Rubenstein Center for White House History & Senior Vice President of Ed- ucational Resources), and Dr. David T. Pride (Execu- tive Director, United States Supreme Court Historical Society) all participated in the program. Cokie Roberts began the panel discussion by sharing her personal stories of the history of the room and the importance of witnessing and documenting history from multiple perspectives. Roberts engaged each member of the panel with insightful questions about their work and led the lively discussion. Panelists shared their different methods of "doing history" and the unique challenges each faces: deciding how much fiction or how much his- tory to write into an historical fiction novel; searching for primary sources and original footage; digging past the surface of primary sources to find the whole truth. Thoughtful questions from the audience led to candid and intriguing answers from the panelists. The U.S. Capitol Historical Society would like to thank the United States Supreme Court Historical Society and the White House Historical Association.