Exploring the Wonders of George Washington and a Deep Dive into his Farewell Address

Dr. Scott Casper

Scott Casper was appointed the eighth president of the Society in December 2020. A historian of the nineteenth-century United States, he has been associated with AAS for three decades, beginning as a Peterson Fellow in 1990. 

Before joining AAS he served as dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and as Foundation Professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno. 

Scott is the author of Sarah Johnson’s Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine (2008) and Constructing American Lives: Biography and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (1999), which won the book prize of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing. 

He is the editor, co-editor, or co-author of seven other books, including A History of the Book in America, volume 3, The Industrial Book (with Jeffrey D. Groves, Stephen W. Nissenbaum, and Michael Winship) and Perspectives on American Book History: Artifacts and Commentary (with Joanne D. Chaison and Jeffrey D. Groves). 

Scott has received fellowships from the National Humanities Center, Winterthur, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, among other institutions. He served on the boards of the American Council of Learned Societies, Nevada Humanities, Maryland Humanities, and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance; edited the annual “Textbooks and Teaching” section of the Journal of American History from 2008 to 2018; and was acting editor of The William and Mary Quarterly in 2008-09. 

Scott has worked extensively with K-12 educators through the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the Center for Civic Education, and the Northern Nevada Teaching American History Project, and he has been on the faculty of Rare Book School since 2017. He holds an AB in history from Princeton University and his MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University.

Danielle Murphy Coimbra

Danielle Coimbra is a long-time history lover. As a teen, she volunteered to dress as a mill girl at the National Historic Park in her hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts – birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution! Danielle teaches American History and English to 5th grade students at the Academy of Notre Dame in Tyngsboro, MA. 

Prior to her current position, Danielle taught in the Lowell Public School system and was a coach and marketing guru in North Conway, NH. Danielle had a fabulous time participating in GWTI programming last summer where she developed new skills to teach the U.S. Constitution and utilize primary sources in instruction.