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Martha Washington, unidentified artist, after Gilbert Stuart, 1800-1850. Gift Edward E. and Elizabeth Furash, 1910 [M-3969], MVLA.

As the wife of the nation's first president, Martha Washington was the first to take on the role of First Lady of the United States. Hear how she and other prominent women throughout the nation's history expanded, interpreted, and evolved this role to influence American politics before women were candidates themselves. 

Twentieth-century first ladies embraced political causes and women carved out space themselves as candidates and politicians. Join a panel of experts on women, history, and politics to learn about how figures of the past and today broke barriers to make a mark on our country and, at times, the world. 

This event will feature a conversation with author Kate Anderson Brower, historian Catherine Allgor, and journalist Alexandra Vitali, and will be moderated by Lindsay M. Chervinsky, the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library.

A book signing and reception with complimentary beer, wine, and hors-d'oeuvres will take place after the lecture. 

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This annual event was created to share new scholarship and insights into the life and times of Martha Washington and is made possible through a generous grant from the Richard S. Reynolds Foundation of Richmond, Virginia.

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Cost

In-Person
$35 for General Public
$28 for Members and Donors
Includes:
• Reception with beer, wine, and hors-d'oeuvres
• Book signing

Virtual
$10
Watch in real-time or after the event

Catherine Allgor

Allgor Heads

Catherine Allgor is president of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Previously, she was the Nadine and Robert Skotheim Director of Education at the Huntington Library, and Professor of History and UC Presidential Chair at the University of California, Riverside. 

Her award-winning first book, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government was published in 2000. Her political biography, A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation (2006) was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize. In 2012, she published Dolley Madison: The Problem of National Unity and The Queen of America: Mary Cutts's Life of Dolley Madison

President Obama appointed Allgor to a presidential commission, The James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. Catherine Allgor also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Women’s History Museum, the Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians, and is a member of the Gilder Lehrman Scholarly Advisory Board.

Kate Andersen Brower

Kate Anderson HeadshotKate Andersen Brower is author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Residence, and First Women, also a New York Times bestseller, as well as Team Of Five, First In Line, and her children’s books Exploring the White House and The Hill. The Residence is being made into a television series produced by Shonda Rhimes for Netflix. Her book Elizabeth Taylor is the first authorized biography of the icon. She covered the Obama administration for Bloomberg News. She is also a former CBS News staffer and Fox News producer. Kate has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and the Washington Post

Ali Vitali

Vitali HeadshotAli Vitali is the host of MSNBC’s Way Too Early.  She spent a decade working as a Capitol Hill Correspondent for NBC News. Vitali covered the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests from primary to inauguration—on the ground and with the candidates—as well as the 2018 and 2022 midterms, from across the country and in the nation’s capital. In 2022, she wrote Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put A Woman In the White House…Yet. The book examines the 202o election and why is it so hard for a woman to be taken seriously as a presidential contender. She is a graduate of Tulane University.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky

Chervinsky HeadshotDr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She produces history that speaks to fellow scholars as well as a larger public audience. 

Dr. Chervinsky has published two books, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard University Press, 2020), and her latest one, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic (Oxford Press, 2024). She also co-edited Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture (University of Virginia Press, 2023). 

Dr. Chervinsky is the creator of the Audible course: The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History. Her research can be found in publications from op-eds to books, speaking on podcasts and other media, and teaching for every kind of audience.