Author Zara Anishanslin Named as Mount Vernon’s Georgian Papers

MOUNT VERNON, VA – The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington is thrilled to announce the selection of prize-winning author and historian Zara Anishanslin as its third Georgian Papers Fellow. The fellowship, funded by The Amanda and Greg Gregory Family Investment Fund, provides an opportunity for a scholar of the era of George Washington to work in the Royal Library and Archives at Windsor Castle, focusing on the papers of King George III, in order to cultivate fresh insights into the era.

As part of the fellowship, Anishanslin will also receive an award of $10,000 and have the opportunity to share her research with the community of scholars and students at Kings College London—a premier British university. She is also a research fellow at the Washington Library, was selected based upon her significant scholarship on the life, leadership, and legacy of George Washington, as well as the broader mission of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. 

“We continue to be extremely excited about this relationship with Kings College London and the Royal Collections Trust,” said Mount Vernon president and CEO Doug Bradburn.  “Zara Anishanslin’s work is extraordinary and driving the field forward."

During this three-month fellowship, Anishanslin will spend one month in-residence at Mount Vernon and two months in Windsor, where she will conduct research for her next book, Revolutionary Things: Material Culture and the American Revolution, 1763-1788. This book narrates the history of how supporters of the American cause on both sides of the Atlantic used material and visual culture to organize protest, incite rebellion, wage war, and build a nation.

The Georgian Papers Programme is a partnership of the Royal Library and Archives and King’s College London, as well as a number of American institutions including the Washington Library.  This five-year project will build an open online collection of nearly 350,000 digitized items from the Royal Archives spanning the eighteenth century and containing the papers of Georgian monarchs.

The Royal Archives—located at Windsor Castle—includes correspondence, maps, and royal household ledgers. As scholars work to digitize and analyze the records held in the archive, they will uncover new information about the history of North America and the transatlantic worlds of politics, trade, science, and religion.

Both the Washington Library at Mount Vernon and the Archives at Windsor boast rich collections of documents, letters, and manuscripts that shed light on the period in which Washington’s life intersected with the life of King George III, who ruled Britain at the time of the American Revolution. Although George Washington and King George III never met, few men influenced each other’s lives or the path of the world in the 18th century as these two men.

For more information about the Washington Library, which has hosted more than 50 scholars for residential fellowships since opening in 2013, please visit www.mountvernon.org/library.

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