Brown Bag Lunches and Food for Thought

March is turning out to be a crazy month, due to a convergence of writing deadlines, fun holidays (St. Patrick’s Day and spring break) and important, non-writing tasks, like getting our taxes ready.  It’s all good stuff (except for the tax-prep part), but it’s making me feel a little frazzled.  What I’d like to spend more time working on – and what will have to wait for at least another week – is the presentation I’m giving about my great-grandfather toward the end of the month.

G. Oliver taught music at Iowa Wesleyan’s Conservatory of Music from 1892-1896 and 1910-11.

My dad and I were invited to participate in Iowa Wesleyan College’s annual Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by the Friends of the Harlan-Lincoln House.  Our presentation is Tuesday, March 27 from noon to 1 p.m. in the college’s Chadwick Library (the talk is free and open to the public, in case you’re in the area and want to attend). 

I did spend a few hours last weekend gathering and reviewing my research about that part of G. Oliver’s career, and I found a few clippings from the Burlington (Iowa) Hawkeye.  This is the same newspaper that just ran a column about the Brown Bag Lecture Series and mentioned the presentation my dad and I are giving.  Here’s what it said:

Joy Riggs and William Riggs, a daughter-and-father duo from Minnesota, will speak March 27 on “Origins of a Music Man: G. Oliver Riggs and the Iowa Wesleyan Music Conservatory.” G. Oliver Riggs was a violin and band instructor at IWC in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who later gained renown as a bandmaster in Minnesota. 

You can read the full column here.

A Burlington Hawkeye article about an IWU Cadet Band concert, from the Riggs scrapbook.

It’s funny how things come full circle – 120 years after G. Oliver made the news for his musical talents, he’s back in the paper again.  Makes me wonder where my name might turn up in another 120 years.