Library Events & Programs

Hear from historian Jane E. Calvert, author of Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson.

Despite the key part he played in the country's founding, few Americans today have heard of John Dickinson. Jane E. Calvert's fascinating, authoritative, and accessible biography, the first complete account of Dickinson's life and work, restores him to a place of prominence in the nation's formative years.

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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Join us for lunch and a compelling discussion with Renee Witterstaetter, author of Cloaked Crusader: George Washington in Comics and Pop Culture. Witterstaetter's book examines George Washington's role as a character in over 100 plus years of comics.

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Whitney Nell Stewart's research project, Bitter Vines: Wine and Slavery in the United States. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Stewart is continuing her research on the importance of the relationship between wine and slavery in the early United States, looking particularly at viticulture and vinification at Mount Vernon.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Philip Mills Herrington's research project, The Plantation Revival. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Marsich is conducting research for his current book project, The Plantation Revival, co-authored with Dr. Lydia Mattice Brandt.

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Join us for lunch and a compelling discussion with John R. Maass, author of From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the Revolutionary War. Maass's new book takes a fresh perspective on the Revolutionary War and identifies five decisive events that secured independence for the 13 colonies.

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Edward J. Larson's research project, Declaring Independence: Jefferson, Adams, Paine and the Revolutionary Year of 1776. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Larson is researching for his upcoming book that will present and analyze the words and actions of 1776 in anticipation of the 250^th anniversary of American independence in 2026.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Kevin Weddle's research project, Washington at War: The Making of a Commander-in-Chief. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Weddle is researching George Washington's transformation from a senior officer into a commander-in-chief.

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Join us for lunch and a compelling discussion with Jason Edwin Anderson, author of General David Wooster: Hero of the American Revolution, 1710-1777. This first biography of the influential figure is exhaustively researched from primary sources, covering Wooster's entire life and entire military and civic careers.

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow John Stuart Gordon's research project, Gold in America: Artistry, Memory, Power. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Gordon is researching gold objects owned by the Custis and Washington families, as well as later commemorative items in gold.

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Hear from historian Joyce E. Chaplin, author of The Franklin Stove: An Unintended American Revolution.

This new book tells the surprising story of Benjamin Franklin’s most famous invention―and a new take on the Founding Father we thought we knew.

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Steven Sarson's research project, History and Historical Consciousness in the US Declaration of Independence. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Sarson is continuing his research for his new book entitled “When in the Course of human events”: History and Historical Consciousness in the US Declaration of Independence (University of Virginia Press, 2025) and related articles and other publications.

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Hear from historian William Haldeman, author of Meeting the Moment: Inspiring Presidential Leadership that Transformed America.

This new book tells the stories of a selected group of US presidents and the inspired leadership characteristics they demonstrated during times of national crisis that set them apart and transformed America — qualities of judgment and ingenuity, dedication and courage, and confidence and optimism. 

Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Karima Moyer-Nocchi's research project, Macaroni and Beyond - From James Hemings to African American Women: The Early American Underpinnings in the making of an iconic dish. Moyer-Nocchi is researching societal conditions that would have impacted James Hemings, Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved head chef, in the areas he lived following his return from training in Paris. The talk will particularly highlight Philadelphia, where he would have been in contact with Hercules Posey, Washington's enslaved chef.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Bartholomew Sparrow's research project, The Unknown Founding: Indentured Servants, the White Poor, and American Political Development. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Sparrow is researching how the presence of unfree Europeans and their propertyless descendants systematically influenced American political development.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Dillon L. Streifeneder's research project, Revolution, War, and the Forging of a Vigorous Government. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Streifeneder is continuing his research on day-to-day experiences of governance and efforts to develop institutional structures needed to wage war. 

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow David Marsich's research project, Relating to the Republic: Representative-Constituent Relationships in the Early United States, 1794-1844. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Marsich is researching accounts about Congressmen in office and as candidates along with writings that suggest how people thought about representation more broadly.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Kieran J. O'Keefe's research project, Horatio Gates and the Pursuit of a Republican Revolution. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, O'Keefe is working on his biography of Horatio Gate which aims to take a fresh look at Gate's life and contributions to American independence.

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Ryan P. Langton's research project, Negotiating the Endless Mountains: Networked Diplomacy along the Eighteenth-Century Trans-Appalachian Frontier. At the George Washington Presidential Library, Gordon is drawing upon the library's manuscript and map collections to chart the personal networks that shaped cross-cultural diplomacy around the Ohio Valley during and after the Seven Years' War.

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