Library Events & Programs

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Cody E. Nager's research project, Determined to be American: Regulating Migration and Citizenship in the Early American Republic, 1783–1824. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Nager is conducting research on migration politics during the Washington Administration.

Hear from historian Karin Wulf, author of Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America.

This book offers a deep understanding of genealogy as a foundational element of American history, illuminating its vital role from the colonial era through the birth of the nation.

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

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Greg Brooking's research project, Henry Laurens: A Southern Founder. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Brooking is researching the personal and public life of Henry Laurens.

Join us for lunch and a compelling discussion with Loren S. Moulds about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing archival transcription and analysis.

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. Lunch will be provided.

Join us for two public lectures to explore the international involvement of the French and Spanish during the American Revolution.

After the lectures, educators are welcome to attend an exclusive workshop to learn how to apply the lecture material in the classroom.

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.

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Richard Bell's research project, America’s Birth Certificate: The Declaration of Independence. 

Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Bell is continuing research for his upcoming book, The American Revolution and the Fate of the World which reframes America's War of Independence as a transformative international event.

Hear from the five finalists for the 2025 George Washington Prize, Jane E. Calvert, Francis D. Cogliano, Michael D. Hattem, Tyson Reeder, and Cara Rogers Stevens, as they discuss their important new books on the founding era. 

This annual award, sponsored by George Washington's Mount Vernon, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Washington College, recognizes the past year’s best works on the nation’s founding era, especially those that have the potential to advance a broad public understanding of early American history.

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 Jamie L. Brummitt, author of Protestant Relics in Early America. In this book Brummitt chronicles how American Protestants cultivated a lively relic culture centered around collecting supernatural memory objects associated with dead Christian leaders, family members, and friends. 

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. Lunch will be provided.

Hear from historian Kostya Kennedy, author of The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America.

One of America’s most famous founding events: Paul Revere’s heroic ride, newly told with fresh research into little-known aspects of the story Americans have heard since childhood but hardly understood.

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

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Patrick K. O’Donnell's research project, Washington’s Elite: The Unknown Story of the Revolution’s Special Troops. 

Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, O’Donnell is researching the Pennsylvania Long Rifle and men who wielded these weapons.  

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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Laura Clerx's research project, Nature's Properties: Science and Commerce in Early America, 1780-1850. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Clerx is researching the meeting of scientific knowledge and early republic economic realities in the papers of the 1785 Potomac Navigation Company founded by Washington.

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Amanda Roper's research project, Saving America’s Past: Women in Preservation. 

Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Roper is researching the story of how Ann Pamela Cunningham and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (MVLA) saved the crumbling home of America's founding father.

Join Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, and Gregg Nunziata, Executive Director of the Society for the Rule of Law, for a discussion on how the rule of law was established in the U.S., why it is central to our republic, and how it has evolved over time. This conversation will be moderated by Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky, Executive Director of the Washington Library. This trio of experts will explore our nation's understanding of law and order from the founding to today.

A reception with complimentary beer, wine, and hors-d'œuvres will follow the lecture.

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Hear from historian Jeffrey Rosen, author of The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America, on how the opposing constitutional visions of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton have defined our country for 250 years, influenced presidents from Washington to Trump, and continue to drive the debate over the power of government today.

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

Hear from historian Joseph J. Ellis, author of The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding, a daring and important work that ultimately reckons with the two great failures of America’s founding: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid Indian removal.

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