SOLD OUT

A dinner specially designed for Smithsonian Associates’ guests by chef Kevin Tien blends Vietnamese traditions with Cajun flavors, resulting in Viet-Cajun cuisine.

(see p. 17)

Thurs., Aug. 26 with tastings

Learn about sake’s history, how it’s made, and how it’s categorized with sake expert and sake sommelier Jessica Joly-Crane.

(see p. 19)

Studio Arts

Let your creative side shine in a wide variety of hands-on classes including photography, drawing, painting, calligraphy, fiber arts, and mixed-media, geared to all experience levels and led by professional artists.

(see pp. 43–44)

Read more about these in-person programs in this guide on our website.

Under the direction of Charlie Young, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra salutes the legacy of the unparalleled Duke Ellington Orchestra in a concert spotlighting some of that ensemble’s most memorable music. (see p.19)

Tours

Our expert-led tours offer oneof-a-kind travel experiences. They’re perfect ways to learn more about topics that intrigue you—and satisfy your yen for exploring fascinating places.

(see pp. 56–61)

Unless noted, all programs are presented on Zoom; listed times are Eastern Time. Online registration is required.

Spring in the South of France

A Virtual Tour of the Region’s History, Culture, and Sights

Everyone from ancient Romans to Post-Impressionist artists to movie stars has been lured to the enchanting South of France. Its abundance of lavender-laced valleys, glittering seashores, and medieval hill towns, all bathed in translucent light, are downright seductive. Journey with travel writer Barbara Noe Kennedy to virtually explore the most intriguing sights—including the gorges known as Europe’s Grand Canyon—historical aspects, food and wine, and art of Provence.

Thurs., June 1, 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-D10; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Colonial India’s Complex History

While the historical relationship of India and Great Britain is well-known, events in other countries also affected how India developed into the country it is today. Author Fazle Chowdhury unravels the complicated history of India from its existence as a British colony to an independent Asian nation.

Chowdhury traces the impact of such seemingly unrelated factors as power struggles in 19th-century Afghanistan, Persian Qajar invasions, diplomatic conflicts between Britain and Czarist Russia, and revolutionary movements in both Russia and Persia.

Fri., June 2, 12–1:30 p.m.; CODE 1J0-266; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Aaron Burr

The Most Controversial Founding Father

Aaron Burr stands apart from the other Founding Fathers—then and now. Debates continue on whether he was a significant political figure or a scoundrel and a traitor. He was a hero of the Revolutionary War, a United States senator, and the third vice president, preceded only by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Yet Burr’s legacy is usually defined by his role in the presidential election of 1800, his potential attempt to create a breakaway nation for which he faced a trial for treason, and most notably his 1804 duel with Hamilton leading to Burr’s indictment in two states for murder. Historian Ralph Nurnberger discusses the many facets of this fascinating early American political leader and whether he’s best remembered as a patriot or a villain.

Mon., June 5, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-016; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

The Treaty of Versailles: How Three Men Shaped our World

In 1919, leaders from around the globe gathered in Paris to write the final chapter of World War I. The resulting Treaty of Versailles was the handiwork of three men: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Premier Georges Clemenceau, and American President Woodrow Wilson. They hoped, one diplomat said, to establish “not Peace only, but Eternal Peace.” But even at the time, another eyewitness knew better. “They think they have got peace,” this French general said. “All they have got is a twenty-year truce.” He was right.

George Mason University history professor Kevin Matthews explores a legacy that is still being played out in Asia and the Middle East, in Europe and the United States, and how the men of Versailles created the world we live in.

Tues., June 6, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-018; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

A Journey through Ancient China

China has more than 3,000 years of recorded history, but misconceptions abound at every stage. Justin M. Jacobs, a professor of Chinese history at American University, gives you a nuanced overview of ancient Chinese history based on the latest scholarship and illustrated with copious slides.

JUN 7 Law and Punishment in Chinese History

JUN 14 Eunuchs in Chinese History

Wed., June 7 (CODE 1J0-270C); Wed., June 14 (CODE 1J0-270D); 6:45 p.m.;

Members $25; Nonmembers $30

U.S.–China Relations: Managing Long-term Rivalry

Co-sponsored by the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars

Relations between the United States and China are at their lowest point since the 1970s. The superpowers are still highly integrated through trade and conflict remains unlikely, but what President Biden calls an “extreme competition” is well underway. Neither Beijing nor Washington has a clear idea of where their competition is headed, how long it will last, or what it will cost. Biden and General Secretary Xi both face domestic pressures that drive them toward a more contentious relationship and prevent them from giving competition their full attention.

Three of Washington’s leading analysts provide insights into whether and how U.S.–China relations can be managed peacefully: J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to China, Singapore, and Indonesia; Amy P. Celico, principal and China director at the Albright Stonebridge Group; and Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, serves as moderator.

Thurs., June 15, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-267; Members $20; Nonmembers $25 Please

The Bronze Age: Civilization and Collapse New Insights into a Catastrophe

For more than 300 years during the Late Bronze Age, from about 1500 B.C. until just after 1200 B.C., the Mediterranean region was the stage on which Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Minoans, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cypriots, Trojans, and Canaanites interacted, creating a cosmopolitan world system that has only rarely been seen before the current day.

When the end came in 1177 B.C. after centuries of cultural and technological evolution, the civilized and international world of the Mediterranean regions came to a dramatic halt.

Historian Eric Cline, author of 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, surveys a dramatic period of achievement, upheaval, and catastrophe drawing on the most recent data on the Late Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and their fates.

Thurs., June 8, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-770; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Quakers and the Birth of the Antislavery Movement

As members of the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers in colonial America manifested their radical sense of equality in what they wore and how they acted. It’s not surprising, then, that 18th-century Quakers were the first group of white Christians in America to confront slaveholding as a religious problem that demanded social action.

But for much of the colonial period, many Quakers were slaveholders themselves—including members of William Penn’s family. It took tremendous energy and effort on the part of a small number of activists to disrupt that status quo in the decades before the Revolution and steer their church towards an outspoken commitment to Black freedom.

Historian Richard Bell recounts this untold story, focusing on the dramatic antislavery crusades and wildly different tactics of three 18th-century Quakers: Benjamin Lay, a hermit; John Woolman, a shopkeeper; and Anthony Benezet, a schoolteacher.

Tues., June 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-264; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Lady Jane Grey

First Tudor Queen or Royal Traitor?

When young King Edward VI died in 1553, England believed the next monarch would be his half-sister Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII named in the Succession Act and Henry’s will as Edward’s heir. But Edward was determined not to leave the crown to a Catholic. With the help of John Dudley, president of the regency council, Edward created a “Devise for the Succession” to rewrite history and choose his successor.

Four days after Edward’s death, Lady Jane Grey Dudley—John Dudley’s teenage daughter-in-law—was proclaimed queen. For several days, both Jane and Mary considered themselves the ruler of England. But once she was installed on the throne, Queen Jane’s reign lasted less than two weeks.

Tudor scholar and historian Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger considers Jane’s life and character and the powerful men around her, tracing the path from noblewoman to young wife to queen. She also examines Mary Tudor’s complicated relationship with Jane—and why it was necessary for one of them to lose her life.

Wed., June 21, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-265; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Live from Poland

World War II in Poland Significant Sites, Events, and Stories

Take a visual journey through the years of World War II in Poland and related significant locations—Warsaw, Krakow, and Gdansk—as author and tour guide Christopher Skutela sheds light on the war and its implications. Knowing what happened in Poland, a constitutional republic that lost its independence during the war, provides a deeper understanding of the history of the rest of Europe and a perspective that can help create a better future, Skutela says.

Mon., June 12, 3 p.m.; CODE 1J0-272; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Churchill’s Secret Army The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

In 1940, Winston Churchill famously ordered his Special Operations Executive (SOE) to “set Europe ablaze.” This top-secret army of mavericks, who ran the gamut from Oxford and Cambridge grads to thieves, soon began a program of sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Churchill remained closely involved throughout the war.

Historian Rory Cormac traces how Churchill’s enthusiasm for intelligence operations drove a global secret war. Ultimately, Cormac suggests that despite some failures, Churchill’s decisions proved astute, and that SOE’s legacy shaped the peace in surprising and sometimes dramatic ways.

Tues., June 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-775; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

How FDR Challenged the Nation From Isolation to Ally

In 1938, when Nazi Germany seized land from Czechoslovakia, the military force of an isolationist United States was smaller than Portugal’s. But that same year, President Franklin Roosevelt’s order to dramatically expand domestic U.S. airplane production was the first step in the monumental transformation of American enterprise that brought victory in World War II, as well as ended the Great Depression, gave rise to middleclass affluence and a consumer society, and triggered an economic, military, and scientific boom that turned America into the undisputed leader of world affairs.

Historian Craig Nelson shares how FDR’s skillful leadership turned a nation wary of war into an arsenal of democracy ready to take on the dangers of another world war.

Nelson’s book V Is for Victory (Simon and Schuster) is available for purchase.

Mon., July 10, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-777; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Planning Operation Overlord Behind the Normandy Invasion

From the vantage point of 79 years, the monumental Normandy invasion smoothly unfolded on June 6, 1944, according to a meticulously detailed plan, with 3 million men, 47 divisions, and 6,000 ships piercing Nazi defenses in an inevitable and unstoppable march to Berlin.

In reality, Operation Overlord was an almost-impossible political and logistical nightmare to conceive and execute, with the Allied high command weighing and discarding many options for landing sites, dates, and equipment, then pulling together the ultimate battle plan in secret. The daring cross-Channel operation opened a new Western front, striking a psychological blow to the German military.

David Eisenhower, director of the Institute for Public Service at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, provides a wider panorama of the daring D-Day invasion led by his grandfather General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

Thurs., July 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-771; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Real Lives of Jews in the Traditional World Insights from the Jewish Theological Seminary Library

Jews through the ages were generally considered pious and thoroughly immersed in Jewish life, standing apart, often by force, from their non-Jewish neighbors. But many of the rare materials in the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in New York City, home to one of the greatest and most extensive collections of Judaica in the world, offer a different picture.

It’s a more nuanced one, based on how specific communities of Jews lived with their neighbors, experiencing life first as human beings and then as Jews. In general, they spoke the same languages as those neighbors, wore the same clothes, and related to the world in similar ways, imagining dragons where their neighbors saw dragons and admiring chivalry where it was admired by all. In a richly illustrated talk, David Kraemer, the library’s director, shares evidence from the magnificent collections that offers surprising correctives to commonly repeated historical “truths.”

Thurs., June 22, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-268; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

Steel in America A Photographic Journey

Learn the history behind who made steel in the United States, what forces shaped the fate of steel mills and steel towns, and where steel is made today. Using dramatic imagery from the National Museum of Industrial History (a Smithsonian Affiliate) and the Historic American Engineering Record, historian Mike Piersa and photographer Jeremy Blakeslee discuss and vividly showcase the growth, evolution, and sometimes death of facilities that were capable of producing millions of tons of steel per year.

Wed., June 28, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1CV-017; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Crisis Along the Colorado Why a Water Shortage Threatens the West

Long-term drought, vast population growth, and wasteful agricultural practices rooted in a century-old legal compact have triggered a crisis along the Colorado River. In a two-part series, Bill Keene, a lecturer in history, urban studies, and architecture, reviews the backstories and contemporary repercussions of major water shortages in the American West and explores possible methods of providing water for some 44 million people—in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and portions of Northern Mexico—who depend on the Colorado River.

JUNE

22 A Flawed Compact

Keene examines why the Colorado River Compact of 1922—designed to ensure equitable division of water, augment agriculture and industry, prevent flooding, and develop electric power—instead resulted in overuse of an already-limited resource and ongoing controversy.

JUNE

29 A Looming Crisis

Long-term droughts heighten the prospect of water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell dropping too low to produce electric power or reaching “dead pool,” when no water at all can be supplied. Keene considers the potential for these scenarios, as well as suggestions to mitigate and avoid drought-based disaster.

2 sessions: Thurs., June 22 and 29, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-037; Members $50; Nonmembers $60

Four Royal Marriages

Unions That Shaped the Monarchy

Royal weddings today are all about the beautiful dress, the surprising hats, the ride in the carriage, the flowers, and the kiss on the balcony. Even before television and cell phones, the public nature of a royal wedding captured the attention of people all over the world. But did it matter after the grand celebration was over? At certain points in history, the marriages of royal family members shifted the course of the monarchy and strengthened its place.

Historian and author Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger, former manager of visitor education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, examines four marriages that influenced the evolution and existence of the English and British monarchy, from the 14th century to today.

10 a.m. Edward III and Philippa of Hainault: A Great Marriage of the Middle Ages

11:30 a.m. Henry VII and Elizabeth of York: Establishing the Tudor Dynasty

12:45 p.m. Break

1:15 p.m. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: The International Power Couple

2:45 p.m. Bertie and Elizabeth: The Family and the Future of the Monarchy

Sat., July 8, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; CODE 1M2-269; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

An Alphabet of Greek Philosophers

Thinkers from Anaximander to Zeno

Much of how we think and what we think about is constructed on foundations shaped by the ancient Greeks. We’ve all heard of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who formed an incomparable trinity of askers of questions—often without answers—and theories about humans, the world around us and how we should function in it, and about what might be beyond our world.

But important philosophers thought and questioned and theorized before Socrates, such as Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, and equally important ones followed Aristotle, including Epicurus and Zeno. Author and Georgetown University professor Ori Z. Soltes, considers how these brilliant minds addressed the varied layers of reality. He also examines why their philosophical legacies remain exciting, and sometimes painful, in their relevance to us more than two millennia after these men strolled through Athens and other cities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Wed., July 12, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-776; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Making of England

England is by far the largest and most populous of the three nations that occupy the island of Britain, but how did its borders take their current shape, and why did Wales and Scotland maintain their distinctive national identities, despite eventually coming under English rule?

Historian Jennifer Paxton recounts how Germanic settlers mixed with the existing Celtic-speaking population at the end of Roman rule in Britain, leading to the rise of several small kingdoms that coalesced into the entity that we know as England.

Thurs., Sept. 7, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-274; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Why We Fight

American Propaganda in World War II

The full mobilization of American society during the Second World War prompted a massive advertising campaign from the federal government’s Office of War Information (OWI). That campaign had many facets, including a sizable print campaign that targeted public spaces. The posters that emerged from the OWI remain some of the most eye-catching and iconic mass-audience images in historical memory.

Historian Christopher Hamner explores those well-known posters, focusing on two important themes: the differing portrayals of America’s enemies and the evolution of what were deemed acceptable roles for men and women amid the turmoil of war.

JUL 17 This Is the Enemy

JUL 24 We Can Do It

2 sessions: Mon., July 17 and 24, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-020; Members $40; Nonmembers $45

From Millionaires Row to Embassy Row

Massachusetts Avenue in the Gilded Age

Washington’s movers and shakers once strolled the streets of Dupont Circle, where Massachusetts Avenue was the city’s most fashionable residential address. Heiresses, industrial magnates, newspaper tycoons, and members of the political elite built opulent mansions along the avenue, all to impress Washington society. After the Great Depression, many of these magnificent mansions were converted into embassies, social clubs, and offices.

Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, offers fascinating stories of the capital’s ruling class and their links to the history of Washington’s premier promenade. Highlighted locations include Dupont Circle; the Walsh-McLean House; the home of Alice Roosevelt Longworth; Anderson House; the Edward H. Everett House; the studios of Alice Pike Barney and Edward Lind Morse; and the Phillips Collection.

Tues., July 18, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-040; Member $25; Nonmembers $30

America’s Main Street: Pennsylvania Avenue

America’s most famous avenue, connecting the White House and U.S. Capitol, hasn’t always been a grand thoroughfare. Pennsylvania Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood have been renovated, re-imagined, and revitalized over and over again. From Murder Bay, a center of crime, gambling, and prostitution to the stately boulevard of presidential inaugurations, Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, unfolds the story of a metamorphosis along America’s Main Street.

Highlights include the White House; the Eisenhower Executive Office Building; Blair House; Federal Triangle; the Willard Hotel; the Old Post Office Tower; the J. Edgar Hoover Building; the U.S. Navy Memorial; the National Archives; and the Temperance Fountain. Wed., Aug. 16, 7 p.m.; CODE 1NV-044; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

A History of Cartography From Stone Scratches to Crisis Mapping

Whether early stone carvings or produced by satellite imagery, maps are part science and part art—but are indispensable for understanding the world and our place in it. They tell us which way to point our car, when to pack an umbrella, and how a trouble spot across the globe might affect our national interest.

Join geographer John Rennie Short, author of Cartographic Encounters: Indigenous Peoples and the Exploration of The New World, as he chronicles the dramatic evolution of mapmaking over the course of human history and examines why maps are and will always be a reflection of the way we view our world and ourselves.

Tues., June 20, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-772; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Rediscovering James Garfield

From Radical to Unifier

Far from simply being a president who was assassinated weeks after taking office, James Garfield might be the most accomplished American statesman of the 19th century, says author C.W. Goodyear. Garfield was a pragmatic politician who quietly shaped the rise—and fall—of Reconstruction; a national peacemaker whose attempts to heal rifts in the postwar Republican Party resulted in his murder; and a leader whose death brought about the political calm he had spent his life striving to achieve.

Join Goodyear as he shines a spotlight on a forgotten president and progressive statesman who tried both to improve an America in political and cultural flux and keep it intact throughout a contentious time.

Copies of President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier (Simon & Schuster) are available for purchase.

Tues., July 25, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-522; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

George Washington’s Visit to Barbados

A Journey that Altered History

George Washington left the mainland only once, when he sailed to Barbados in 1751. He accompanied his half-brother Lawrence, who had contracted tuberculosis and hoped that the island’s warm climate would ameliorate the disease. Despite its important consequences, the journey remains one of the lesser-known episodes of Washington’s early life.

The four-month voyage proved to be significant for the then-19-year-old Washington. He spent time with British soldiers and viewed their fortifications and arms, which fascinated him enough to shift his career goals from being a surveyor to a military career path. Visiting sugar plantations and sugar mills gave him a first-hand view of the production of rum, a beverage that had major economic, political, and social implications at the time. And after recovering from smallpox in Barbados, Washington gained an understanding of the benefits of inoculation for the military. Historian Ralph Nurnberger details this remarkable trip and highlights the impact it had on Washington, his career, and the outcome of the American Revolution.

Mon., July 31, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-019; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Epic Story of Wildlife and People in America

Historian Dan Flores chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the “wild new world” of North America—a place shaped by evolutionary forces and momentous arrivals of humans from Asia, Africa, and Europe. These arrivals precipitated a massive disruption of the teeming environment they found. In telling the story, Flores sees humans not as a species apart but as a new animal entering a place that had never seen our like before.

Flores’s book Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America (W.W. Norton & Company) is available for purchase.

Mon., Aug. 7, 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-019; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Celebrities in Chief

American Presidents and the Culture of Stardom

Americans expect their president to be more than chief executive, commander in chief, chief consoler, and chief crisis manager. In an era in which media stardom is a key part of public life, they also expect our national leader to be our celebrity in chief, says historian Ken Walsh, who as a journalist covered the White House beat for more than 30 years for U.S. News & World Report.

Drawing the distinction between shallow celebrity (simply fame with no larger purpose) and consequential celebrity (fame linked to American values or goals), Walsh surveys presidents across the centuries who made the most effective use of their celebrity—and those who didn’t. Learn why he places Washington, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama in the first category, while Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter represent the second.

Bill Clinton is offered as an example of a president whose celebrity produced a mixed record of success—a category into which Joe Biden also falls, for different reasons. And as Donald Trump seeks another term, Walsh looks at why he believes Trump will need to channel his celebrity in positive directions.

Tues., Aug. 22, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-022; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Only Winner in War Is Medicine

The history of medicine is replete with advances made by hard-working maverick doctors who made astonishing progress against humankind’s deadliest diseases. Yet surgeon Andrew Lam says one factor spurred more medical breakthroughs than any other: war. He reveals how D-Day, Luftwaffe bombing raids, top-secret Liberty ship cargo, and aerial dogfights bequeathed to humanity innovations in surgery, cancer treatment, and trauma care that still serve us today.

Lam’s book on medical history, The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases (BenBella Books), is available for purchase.

Wed., Aug. 23, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-281; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

When Washington Burned

Perhaps no other single day in U.S. history was as threatening to the survival of the nation as August 24, 1814, when British forces captured Washington, D.C. This unique moment significantly altered the nation’s path forward, but the event and the reasons behind it are little remembered by most Americans. Historian Robert P. Watson examines the British campaign and American missteps that led to the fall of Washington during the War of 1812.

He analyzes the actions of key figures on both sides of the conflict, pinpoints why the campaign was such a disaster for the United States, and covers the stories of the courageous young clerks and the bold first lady, Dolley Madison, who risked their lives to save priceless artifacts and documents, including the Constitution, from the flames.

Watson’s book When Washington Burned: The British Invasion of the Capital and a Nation’s Rise from the Ashes (Georgetown University Press) is available for purchase and signing.

Thurs., Aug. 24, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-390; Ripley Center; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Thinking Like a Historian: A Practical Guide

Whatever their area of expertise, professional historians draw on a shared set of practical skills— locating primary sources, placing them in context, reading texts closely and precisely, and Corroborating multiple accounts—to make sense of the past.

In an innovative hands-on workshop, Christopher Hamner, an associate professor of American history at George Mason University, demystifies this process by guiding you in how to think about and interpret the past. Hamner introduces participants to the skills and thought processes of the historical profession, employing actual primary sources from 300 years of American history. Participants have the opportunity for hands-on work with sources and to practice thinking like a historian themselves.

10 a.m. Historical Thinking Skills

12:30 p.m. Lunch (participants provide their own)

1:30 p.m. How Historians Think About Cause and Effect

Sat., Aug. 26, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; CODE 1D0-023; Ripley Center; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

The Jesuits in the United States A Modern Perspective on 500 Years

The history of Catholicism in America cannot be told without the history of the Jesuits. David J. Collins, SJ, of Georgetown University offers a panoramic overview of the Jesuit order in the United States from the colonial era to the present and places it against the backdrop of American religious, cultural, and social history.

He compares the historical and contemporary relationship of Jesuit activities in America to those in Europe and other countries, especially in Latin America. Collins also covers the papacy’s suppression of the Jesuit order and its restoration period and reflects on its future in light of its past.

His book The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History (Georgetown University Press) is available for purchase.

Thurs., Aug. 31, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-024; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Indigenous DC

Native Peoples and the Nation's Capital

Washington, D.C., was built on American Indian land, but Indigenous peoples are often left out of the city’s narrative. To redress this invisibility, Elizabeth Rule, an assistant professor at American University and Chickasaw scholar-activist, shines a light on the contributions of Indigenous tribal leaders and politicians, artists, and activists to the history of the District of Columbia.

Rule explores sites of importance to Native peoples throughout the nation’s capital, including Theodore Roosevelt Island, the White House lawn, and Anacostia and the Potomac. She also showcases empowering stories of how the city is a place of tribal history, gathering, and advocacy.

Thurs., Sept. 7, 12–1:15 p.m.; CODE 1J0-283; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Impact of Ferdinand and Isabella From Christopher Columbus to Charles III

When Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married in 1469, they incorporated not only their two kingdoms but also independent Spanish dominions into a large, unified country that wielded political and religious power over much of Europe for years. Tudor scholar and historian Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger traces the history of this famous couple and their lasting impact on the thrones of several European nations.

Lloyd-Stanger considers the individual accomplishments of Isabella as a rare female ruler at a time of male domination. She also delineates the legacy of Ferdinand and Isabella through royal houses of Europe right up to King Charles III.

Wed., Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-276; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

The Pursuit of Happiness The African American Diaspora in the Revolutionary War

In return for taking up arms against the patriots in the American Revolutionary War, enslaved people won pledges from British military that they would be freed when Britain won the war. But what happened when Britain lost?

Historian Richard Bell explores these Black fugitives’ extraordinary odyssey through the remainder of Britain’s global empire after 1783 to examine the ways they tried to pursue happiness and forge an African American diaspora.

Bell explores this forgotten chapter of the Revolutionary era through the life of Harry Washington, a loyalist stable hand at Mount Vernon who found his way to Sierra Leone in 1792, where he sought to start a new life as an independent farmer. He traces the forces that led to Washington and his fellow settlers to undertake a dramatic 1797 uprising to depose the colony’s British administrators and declare their own independence once and for all.

Thurs., Sept. 14, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-277; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

New York City in the Gilded Age A Cultural History

The late 19th century in New York City was an era of spectacular architecture, beautiful parks and squares, exquisite mansions, and palatial public buildings—all magnificent markers of what has become known as the Gilded Age and the wealth that made it possible.

Yet the city was a study in dichotomies, an urban society whose facets were both celebrated and critiqued in the writings of Edith Wharton and Henry James and boldly exposed by Jacob Riis in his photographs of immigrant life.

Lecturer George Scheper of Johns Hopkins University surveys the cultural panorama of New York and the contrasting realities of its inhabitants.

Thurs., Sept. 21, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-278; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

Countering the Myth of the Lost Cause Truths About the Past

For generations the Myth of the Lost Cause cast a long shadow over the Civil War, America’s watershed event. The persistence of that narrative, created by ex-Confederates as a social and cultural movement to define the Confederacy’s value and justify the just-concluded conflict, remains part of contemporary America.

Historian Stephen D. Engle rejects that notion and challenges the enduring Southern reverence for the Confederacy. His analysis focuses on how slavery gave rise to the Republican Party that elected Abraham Lincoln, which incited secession and the Confederacy’s creation. Engle covers issues central to the myth over generations by targeting its origins during Reconstruction, its cultural endurance through the 1920s and the Great Depression, its challenges to the civil rights era, and even its symbolism in rallying patriotism today.

Tues., Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-279; Members $25; Nonmembers $30