10/17/96

ATHENS, Ohio -- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Midwife's Tale, will give a free, public lecture, "Pens and Needles: Documents, Artifacts and the Craft of History," at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in 194 Irvine Auditorium.

Ulrich, a Phillips Professor of Early American History and professor of women's studies at Harvard University, won the Bancroft Prize in American History in 1991 and began a five-year MacArthur Fellowship in 1992.

Born and raised in the Rocky Mountains, Ulrich completed an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Utah, a master's degree in English at Simmons College and a doctorate in history at the University of New Hampshire.

Ulrich is currently writing a history of the "age of homespun" and assisting with the production of a documentary film on A Midwife's Tale.

Ulrich's lecture is part of the History Department's endowed Costa Lecture Series, which brings a prominent historian to campus each year. The lecture was established in 1980 by Helen Costa Hayes, a 1926 graduate of Ohio University.