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The Library frequently hosts a variety of dynamic events, welcoming established scholars, leaders, and experts from numerous fields.


Upcoming Events

Brown Bag Lunch: American Prime Meridian

October 8, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow James E. Lewis's research project, American Prime: Why Americans Desired, Adopted, and Abandoned Their Own Prime Meridian. In writing his latest book, American Prime, Lewis is using resources at Mount Vernon that helps amplify the importance of the Prime Meridian in the 18th and 19th centuries and why the American people felt like it was so essential to establish a new Prime Meridian with their independence.

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Supreme Court Lecture Series: Supreme Court and Politics

October 8, 2024 — 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Ford Orientation Center - Smith Theater

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 a conversation between American University professor Gautham Rao, Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck, and Lindsay Chervinsky, the new Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. They will discuss the history of the U.S. Supreme Court and politics.

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

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Brown Bag Lunch: The Lynching of Enslaved People in the American South

October 15, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Kelly Houston Jones's research project, Tangled Wrath: The Lynching of Enslaved People in the American South. This project explores the history of the relationships between enslavers and the enslaved community, not only at Mount Vernon but throughout other plantations in the 18th century. 

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Lunch at the Library: Marquis de Lafayette Returns

October 17, 2024 — 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

To mark the 200th anniversary of Lafayette's historic visit to Mount Vernon, join us for lunch and compelling discussion with historian Elizabeth Reese, who will discuss her new book, Marquis de Lafayette Returns: A Tour of America's National Capital Region. This event will also serve as a launch for the Washington Library’s exciting new French Digitization effort. 

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. A buffet lunch will be provided. Participants will have the opportunity to attend a post-lunch reenactment of Lafayette's historic visit to the Old Tomb, followed by a special wreath laying ceremony at Washington's Tomb.

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2024 USC Sol Price Leadership Lecture

October 22, 2024 — 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Ford Orientation Center - Smith Theater

Join New York Times correspondent David E. Sanger and historian Tyson Reeder in a conversation moderated by Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky, as they discuss foreign interference in presidential elections from the 18th century to the present.

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

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Brown Bag Lunch: Generational Impact of Enslavement

October 24, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Sherri Burr's research project, Generational Impact: An Economic Comparison of Mount Vernon's Enslaved Population Who Received Freedom in 1800 with Those Who Remained Enslaved until 1863. This project compares the lives of the enslaved people who were owned and then freed by George Washington to the enslaved people who belonged to the Custis Dower Estate.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Rochambeau and the War of American Independence

October 25, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Matthieu Haroux's research project, Rochambeau and the American War of Independence (1780-1783).

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Brown Bag Lunch: The Study and Reproduction of 18th-Century Garments

October 31, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and join Amanda Isaac, Associate Curator, and Kathrin Breitt Brown, Historic Costumer, in a discussion of how the study and reproduction of garments in the Mount Vernon collection informs what we know about the wearers and makers. In studying several Martha Washington gowns, bodices, and remnants of bodices, they have been able to draw conclusions about Martha Washington’s physicality. In reproducing George Washington’s assumed inaugural coat, insights into the conditions under which the suit was made and its maker give insight into the weeks leading up to Washington departure for his presidency

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The 2024 George Washington Symposium: Founding Fellows, Ten Years of Academic Excellence

November 1, 2024 — 2:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Robert H. and Clarice Smith Auditorium

The George Washington Presidential Library opened its doors in 2013 and in so doing, launched an ambitious research fellowship program where scholars carry out important work which they share with broad audiences. The Library is a stimulating environment for creative scholarship which encourages a confluence of new ideas and powerful connections, while delivering our mission to educate the widest public audience about the life, leadership, and legacy of the Father of Our Country. 

To celebrate the Library’s ten-year anniversary, the 2024 George Washington Symposium will showcase the ongoing work of its talented research fellows.

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Lunch at the Library: America's Revolutionary War in the South

November 6, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Join us for lunch and compelling discussion with historian Alan Pell Crawford, who will discuss his new book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South.  This groundbreaking history shows how the British surrender at Yorktown was the direct result of the southern campaign, and that the battles that emerged south of the Mason-Dixon line between loyalists and patriots were, in fact, America's first civil war.

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.

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Ford Evening Book Talk: A Republic of Scoundrels

November 13, 2024 — 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Hear from historians David Head and Timothy C. Hemmis, editors of A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers, and Adventurers Who Created a New American Nation. 

The Founding Fathers are often revered as American saints. This new book provides interesting stories of those Founders who were schemers and scoundrels, vying for their own interests ahead of the nation’s.

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

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Brown Bag Lunch: The Atlantic Neptune and the Northern Survey

November 21, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn more about George Washington's world, the Washington Presidential Library’s important map collection, and the American Revolutionary Geographies Online (ARGO) web portal in our ARGO Brown Bag lunch series.

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Lunch at the Library: Disunion Among Ourselves

December 9, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Join us for lunch and a compelling discussion with historian Eli Merritt, who will discuss his latest book, Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution. Merritt's book takes a look into the politics of the Continental Congress during the war and the obstacles to achieving independence in the 1770s and 1780s.

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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Ford Evening Book Talk: The Age of Revolutions

December 10, 2024 — 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Hear from historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, author of The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It. 

This is a panoramic, persuasive and inspiring new history of the revolutionary decades between 1760 and 1825, from North America and Europe to Haiti and Spanish America, showing how progress and reaction went hand in hand.

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

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Brown Bag Lunch: US Consuls & the Development of American Diplomacy

December 11, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Sandra Moats' research project, Global at the Founding: US Consuls and the Development of American Diplomacy. This project explores the role U.S. consuls played from the 18th century to the mid 20th century for American diplomacy. Moats is working on a book project that is focused on American politics, diplomacy, and governance in the decades surrounding Washington’s presidency.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Security, Imperial Reconstitution, and the British Atlantic Islands

December 13, 2024 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Ross Nedervelt's research project, Security, Imperial Reconstitution, and the British Atlantic Islands in the Age of the American Revolution. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Ross is continuing his research on the importance of the British Atlantic Islands for the security of Britain and America in the 18th century.

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