Westminster College History Professor to Speak on "Picking a Bride for the Tsar"

Dr. Russell E. Martin, assistant professor of history at Westminster College, 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 Westminster College 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 Westminster College faculty, and to afford the opportunity for faculty to share their learning with the academic community.

Dr. Henderson, professor Emeritus of education at Westminster College, served as chair of the Department of Education and director of the Graduate Program.