Dr Jay Sexton is University Lecturer in American History and Tutorial Fellow in History at Corpus Christi College. In this presentation, he will speak on the international travels of William H. Seward, who served as Secretary of State in the cabinets of US Presidents Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) and Andrew Johnson (1865-1869). Seward played an important part in defining the physical shape of the United States (acquiring Alaska in 1867) and in managing the country’s foreign relations as it went through the gravest crisis in its history, the US Civil War. He became the first Secretary of State to travel abroad while in office, visiting several points in the Caribbean in 1866. He also travelled and wrote extensively after his retirement, providing an insightful viewpoint on the world as the United States entered a period of rising economic and political power.