Virginia Historical Society Podcast

On June 12, 2008, Colonel Gibson delivered a talk on Moses Ezekiel, the first Jewish cadet at VMI and world renowned sculptor. Few sculptors of the nineteenth century were as well known during their lifetimes as Moses Ezekiel, though he is little-known today. The first Jewish cadet at VMI, he fought in the battle of New Market in 1864. Encouraged by Robert E. Lee to pursue his artistic calling, Ezekiel studied in Europe and became the first American to win the coveted Prix de Rome. Keith Gibson will draw on his biography of Ezekiel to bring to life this luminary of nineteenth-century art. Colonel Gibson is executive director of museum programs and architectural historian at the Virginia Military Institute. (Introduction by Robert F. Strohm)