Events: anytime, any location, all ages

Long viewed as unjust and mercenary, the Mexican-American War allowed the U.S. to seize control of vast expanses of the Southwest, paved the way for the Civil War, and led to the political rise of Abraham Lincoln.

Historian Amy S. Greenberg discusses her book A Wicked War and its cast of colorful characters: James K. Polk, the dour president committed to territorial expansion; Henry Clay, the aging statesman with one last great speech up his sleeve; and Lincoln’s archrival John Hardin, to name just a few.

The slave Dred Scott claimed that his residence in a free state transformed him into a free man. When the Court decided otherwise, the ruling sent shock waves through the nation and helped lead to the Civil War.

Earl M. Maltz discusses his book Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery and argues that the case revealed a political climate that had grown so threatening to the South that overturning the Missouri Compromise was considered essential.

Artist Glen Hansen presents and discusses the more than three dozen drawings and paintings that make up his show opening June 27 in the Library’s Guldner Gallery. Subjects range from historic turn-of-the-century structures to the modern TWA Building and the iconic Town Topic Hamburgers.

A teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hansen early on became fascinated by the details of ornate Victorian houses. Among his works are many focusing on the architecture of Prague, Paris, and Venice.

This two-piece, nationally known kids’ band puts on a fun family concert full of funky tunes so interactive that everyone gets to be part of the act!

The band has been mentioned in Time, People, and Parents magazines. You can hear their two number one hits on SiriusXM Kids Place Live and listen to them on the NPR show Car Talk.

Appropriate for all ages.

Old Mother Hubbard loves her dog, and he loves her. In this comic poem, written in 1805, Old Mother Hubbard is always looking out for her best friend and in return he is dancing and spinning and sitting and standing, all to the delight of Old Mother Hubbard. In a quaint old cottage, the comedy of a dog and his master opens and unfolds to delight and captivate in this story of this good old lady and her funny dog.

Come and learn about different musical stringed and woodwind instruments. You can see the instruments up close, meet the musicians, and hear beautiful music!

Serengeti Steve performs over 600 shows a year throughout the country and has been featured as a Las Vegas finalist on NBC's hit show, America's Got Talent. His talents even earned him a place in the famous Guinness Book of World Records. Various reptiles and arachnids from around the globe are brought to you in a comical and fun-filled hands on experience.

In defiance of an 1890 Louisiana law prescribing “equal but separate accommodations” on public transportation, Homer Plessy, a black man born to free black parents, boarded a train car reserved for whites and was promptly arrested. Plessy appealed his conviction and his case ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the Louisiana statute in 1896.

As Williamjames Hull Hoffer, associate professor of history at Seton Hall University, shows in his book Plessy v. Ferguson: Race and Inequality in Jim Crow America, the ruling created an official system of racial segregation that would last deep into the 20th century.

During the 1960s the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren examined almost every aspect of the criminal justice system in a process that became known as the “nationalization” of the Bill of Rights.

In her book Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizure, Carolyn N. Long examines how the Warren Court interpreted the Fourth Amendment through the groundbreaking 1961 decision that limited the circumstances under which police can search an individual’s home and seize evidence of criminal activity.

Few Supreme Court decisions have stirred up as much controversy, vitriolic debate, and even violence as the one delivered in Roe v. Wade in 1973.

The case was filed on behalf of a woman who had sought and failed to obtain a legal abortion in Texas by falsely claiming to have been raped. Her pregnancy went to term; she sued the state. Rejecting a fetal right-to-life argument, the Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the 14th Amendment’s due process clause extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion.

Peter Charles Hoffer examines the lasting impact of this landmark decision in Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History, which was co-authored with N.E.H. Hull. Hoffer is a distinguished research professor of history at the University of Georgia.