Bultema, Anderson to highlight MSU’s 2025 Marszalek Speaker Series
Contact: Pattye Archer
STARKVILLE, Miss.—James A. Bultema, president of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, and Heath Anderson, a fifth-year history Ph.D. candidate from Virginia, are featured speakers for Mississippi State’s 2025 John F. and Jeanne A. Marszalek Lecture Series.
Free and open to the public, the event takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday [March 20] in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library.
Held each March, the Marszalek Lecture Series recognizes an MSU graduate student and a nationally renowned historian, highlighting their research and emphasizing the use of primary sources in historical scholarship, according to David Nolen, associate dean for archives and special collections.
“The Marszalek Fund enables the purchase of primary source materials covering the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jacksonian America and race relations,” said Nolen. “The lecture series provides a platform for a student researcher to present their work alongside an established scholar sharing insights from their own research.”
Bultema will present “Ulysses S. Grant: A Photographic History,” while Anderson’s talk is titled “Life is Not Held Sacred: Mississippi and the Election of 1875.”
Bultema served as vice president of the Grant Association for 34 years before assuming the role of president. An international expert on Grant’s image, his collection—the Bultema-Williams Collection of Grant images and prints—is housed at the Grant Presidential Library at MSU.
A combat veteran and retired Los Angeles police officer, Bultema has authored several books on police history. His latest work “Sea of Red” is an award-winning Amazon bestseller. He and his wife, Carole, operated Bullywood Productions, a documentary film company in Los Angeles, for 25 years.
Anderson developed a passion for history and the American Civil War through frequent visits to historic battlefields. His dissertation “The Civilization of Slavery vs. That of Freedom” examines how Americans’ conflicting views of “civilization” during the Civil War era shaped the course of Reconstruction.
Nolen emphasized that the Marszalek series provides MSU students, faculty and staff with a valuable opportunity to engage with influential scholars.
“We hope students gain insight from the lecture by experiencing original research presented by both a student and an experienced scholar,” he said.
The lecture series and Marszalek Library Fund were established in 2002 when the Marszaleks donated $20,000 to MSU Libraries to support the acquisition of primary source materials.
“Through the Marszaleks’ generosity, the library continues to enhance its collections, positively impacting the university’s research and teaching mission,” Nolen added.