From the mansion to lush gardens and grounds, intriguing museum galleries, immersive programs, and the distillery and gristmill. Spend the day with us!
Join us for lunch and compelling discussion with librarian and author Paula Lenor Webb, who will discuss her new book, Such a Woman: The Life of Madame Octavia Walton LeVert.
This event is part of the Washington Library's new Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided.
Hear from George Mason University Professor Cynthia A. Kierner, author of The Tory's Wife:A Woman and her Family in Revolutionary America.
Dr. Kierner's new book tells the story of Jane Welborn Spurgin, a patriot who welcomed General Nathanael Greene to her home and aided Continental forces while her loyalist husband was fighting for the king as an officer in the Tory militia. After the war, she was an abandoned wife on the verge of homelessness. But in a dramatic series of petitions to the North Carolina state legislature, she boldly fought to reclaim her family's property and to assert her own political rights.
Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.
Join us for lunch and a compelling presentation of The Great Experiment, an educational virtual reality (VR) experience that transports participants to Independence Hall at the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, finding themselves immersed and actively engaged in those historical moments surrounded by authentic avatars of the founders.
This event is part of the Washington Library's new Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided. Guests will have an opportunity to participate in this virtual experience following the presentation.
Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Edward P. Green's research project, Power, Diplomacy, and Interdependent Sovereignty in the Choctaw Nation, 1720-1924.
Founding Partisans by bestselling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H.W. Brands, is a revelatory history of the shocking emergence of vicious political division at the birth of the United States.
A book signing and reception with complimentary beer, wine, and hors-d'oeuvres will take place after the lecture.
This event is part of the 2024 Michelle Smith Lecture Series.
Hear from historian Christopher F. Minty, author of Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City.
Minty's new book explores the origins of loyalism in New York City between 1768 and 1776, and revises our understanding of the coming of the American Revolution.
Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.
The Supreme Court Historical Society and the Washington Presidential Library are joining together to present two lectures focused on George Washington, the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the nation's founding.
This segment, taking place in the Court Chamber, features the first biography of George Washington's extraordinary nephew, who inherited Mount Vernon and was Chief Justice John Marshall's right-hand man on the Supreme Court for nearly thirty years.
A reception with complimentary beer, wine, and hors-d'oeuvres will take place after the lecture. Tickets are available only as a two-lecture package.
The Pursuit of Happiness is a fascinating examination of what “the pursuit of happiness” meant to our nation’s Founders and how that famous phrase defined their lives and became the foundation of our democracy.
A book signing and reception with complimentary beer, wine, and hors-d'oeuvres will take place after the lecture.
This event is part of the 2024 Michelle Smith Lecture Series.
Join us for lunch and compelling discussion with author Brook Manville, who will discuss his new book, The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives.
This event is part of the Washington Library's new Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided.
Hear from historian Talmage Boston, author of How the Best Did It:Leadership Lessons from our Top Presidents.
Talmage Boston's new book is an accessible and insightful explanation of how the most important leadership traits from America’s eight greatest presidents can be implemented by today’s leaders. It is a discerning examination of what can be learned from some of our most effective leaders who have held—and wielded—ultimate power at the highest level.
Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.
In 1774, on the eve of the American Revolution, George Washington began a major expansion of his home, a building whose foundations dated to the 1730s. It was a project that he maintained throughout the war and that he continued after his triumphant return to Mount Vernon.
Inspired by the work that began 250 years ago, the 2024 Mount Vernon Symposium will explore the art and architecture of the British Atlantic in the long-eighteenth century, exploring the connections between and comparisons of British and American practices in the years preceding and surrounding the American Revolution.
Join leading curators, historians and preservation experts as they examine the diffusion of British style and tastes, from Boston to Charleston, and from England and Ireland, to the Caribbean and the Chesapeake.
The Mount Vernon Symposium is endowed by the generous support of The Robert H. Smith Family Foundation, Lucy S. Rhame, The Felicia Fund, The Sachem Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. Frank Mauran IV.
Hear from University of Miami professor Ashli White, author of Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and Politics in the Late Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World.
Dr. White's new book examines how objects associated with the American, French, and Haitian revolutions drew diverse people throughout the Atlantic world into debates over revolutionary ideals. She explores the power of material things and visual images to express the fervor and fear of the revolutionary era.
Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions and have their books signed.
Supreme Court Lecture Series: Making the Presidency
The Supreme Court Historical Society and the Washington Presidential Library are joining together to present two lectures focused on George Washington, the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the nation's founding.
This segment, taking place at Mount Vernon, features an authoritative account of the second president of the United States that shows how John Adams's leadership and legacy defined the office for those who followed and ensured the survival of the American republic.
A book signing and reception with complimentary beer, wine, and hors-d'oeuvres will take place after the lecture. Tickets are available only as a two-lecture package.