Shows
Revolutions in RetrospectAvenging America with Julia GaffieldOn January 1, 1804, Jean Jacque Dessalines and his followers announced to their countrymen and to the rest of the world that their home was no longer the French colony of San Domingue. It was now the nation of Haiti. After years of revolutionary civil war, the abolition of slavery and fears of slavery's return, Dessalines asked the citizens of Haiti "to let us swear to fight to our last breath and for the independence of our country." That nation was the world's first black republic. In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske talks with historian Julia Gaffield, Ph.D...
2026-02-0542 min
Continuing Studies: Higher Ed PodcastingDo Podcasts Count? Journals, Peer Review, and the Future of Academic Work in AudioA thoughtful look at how podcasting is expanding the ways academic work is created and shared.Jim Ambuske, historian and producer, is back to share his thoughts on where audio is going in the academic world and what it’s going to take to have it recognized as a scholarly medium. Jim gets into his new work on the In Pursuit project, what he’s seeing in the world of digital archives and oral history, and why he believes audio and video are important ways to share academic work beyond the page. They also dig into the real...
2026-01-2632 min
Continuing Studies: Higher Ed PodcastingHigher Ed Podcaster Predictions For 2026Start your 2026 inspired and ready for what’s next in higher ed podcasting—straight from the people building it.What’s ahead for higher ed podcasting in 2026? This episode rounds up predictions from creators and educators around the world, spotlighting the trends shaping the year ahead. Hear why podcasting may gain more academic credibility, how universities could lean on audio as a PR and outreach channel, and why short mini-series and binge-drop formats are on the rise. The conversation also explores a major shift toward research storytelling that highlights process (not just results), the growing role of podcas...
2026-01-1227 minRevolutions in RetrospectFighting Plagues of the Heart in Scotland with Mikki BrockIn the seventeenth-century Scottish town of Ayr, Scots swore a sacred oath to defend the Presbyterian Church of Scotland against the meddling of King Charles I. These Scots pledged to lead godly lives and submit themselves to judgment when Satan's temptations overwhelmed them. But in the years that followed, the return of the plague, the killing of a king, the outbreak of civil war, the occupation of the town by English soldiers, and the specter of witchcraft all tested their faith in God and in each other. In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske talks with historian Mikki...
2026-01-061h 08Revolutions in RetrospectRecovering Black Mariners in the Atlantic World with Mary HicksFor centuries, Black mariners plied the waters of the Atlantic world. From the decks of ships that traversed vast distances between Brazil, Portugal, West Africa, and beyond, through dangerous swells and past enemy fleets, enslaved seamen connected continents as they labored for the Portuguese Empire in the Age of Revolutions. Despite their enslavement, they made a world that was their own. In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske talks with historian Mary Hicks, Ph.D, about these "captive cosmopolitans," who traded goods on their own accounts, infused Brazil with West African religions, foods, and fashions, and used Royal...
2025-12-0940 minRevolutions in RetrospectLafayette Bids His Last Adieu with Ryan L. ColeIn 1824, nearly 50 years after he first set foot on American shores, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States of America. He longed to see the progress of the nation he helped to found, a nation whose work he knew remained unfinished. And so, in the summer of 1824, Lafayette returned to his adopted home one last time, before he bid his last adieu. In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske talks with Ryan L. Cole about Lafayette's final journey to the United States, a moment that held up a mirror to Revolutionary America. Purchase Ryan L. Cole's...
2025-11-111h 16
Continuing Studies: Higher Ed PodcastingMaking History Heard: Bringing the Past to Life Through PodcastsR2 Studios on turning serious history into compelling podcasts.Jeanette Patrick and Jim Ambuske of R2 Studios join the Continuing Studies podcast to discuss the intersection of history, storytelling, and podcasting. They share how R2 Studios was founded with a mission to democratize history through engaging audio content, supported by academic rigor and creative production. From the challenges of building a podcast network within a university setting to the importance of funding, audience development, and cross-promotion, this conversation offers a candid look at what it takes to create compelling educational podcasts. Jeanette and Jim also reflect on...
2025-04-2134 min
Why Wars Happened History PodcastINTERVIEW: The Revolutionary Secrets Buried in Windsor CastleThe American Revolution still has secrets.Historian Jim Ambuske reveals hidden documents, Scottish influence, and the discoveries reshaping how we understand King George III, Virginia leaders, and America’s fight for independence.⏱ Timestamps00:00 – Welcome Jim Ambuske00:24 – Jim’s podcasting journey at Mount Vernon01:32 – Transition to George Mason University02:55 – Discoveries at Windsor Castle09:00 – Rethinking King George III17:53 – The Scottish Court of Session Project24:03 – Scottish immigrants & the Revolution33:12 – Virginia’s revolutionary heavyweights39:02 – Final thoughts#AmericanRevolution #FoundingFathers #ScottishHistory #WhyWarsHappened
2024-11-0544 min
Revolution 250 PodcastWorlds Turned Upside Down with Jim AmbuskeA story from the 19th century told that British soldiers marched off the surrender ground at Yorktown to the tune of "The World Turned Upside Down." Whether true or not is beside the point. The world may indeed have seemed upside down. To help us come to grips with the myriad of ways in which life in the British Atlantic world changed, we talk with historian James Patrick Ambuske, producer and narrator for the "Worlds Turned Upside Down" podcast, a production of R2 Studios at the Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Jim Ambuske is also...
2024-04-2337 min
Pursuing Your Passions is a B!@#$!Episode 24- A Dive into The Art of History with Jim AmbuskeToday, we discuss the journey of Jim Ambuske! Thank you for joining our journey through the arts. Like we always say "Pursuing your Passions is a Bitch... But it's worth it!"Please Check out our friend, Jim Ambuske-His Website- https://www.jamespambuske.com/Also Check us out and our future projects at The Rogue Scientist ProductionsWebsite- https://theroguescientistproductions.com/Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087537946337Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/roguescientistproductions/Check out "The World Beyond" by Charles Dockham on Kindle Vella- https://www.amazon...
2023-07-0226 min
2 Complicated 4 HistoryIntertwined: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount VernonIsaac S. Loftus and Dr. Lynn Price Robbins welcome the talent behind the award-nominated podcast, “Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon”—co-writers Jeannette Patrick and Dr. Jim Ambuske, and narrator Brenda Parker. The eight-part podcast, which tells the story of the more than 577 people enslaved by George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon, zooms in past statistics and generalities to present biographies of the people who lived in a state of slavery.
Everything you need to follow and learn more here: https://linktr.ee/2c4h_podcast
Relevant Links:
Jim Ambuske, Jeanette Patrick, and Brenda Parker on Inter...
2023-04-181h 00
People Hidden In HistoryFlora MacDonald - An 18th Century Life in 2 RevolutionsSend us a textFlora MacDonald (1722-1790) played a role in two different revolutions, first in Scotland and later in North Carolina during the Revolutionary War. She was most famously known for hiding Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) to avoid being captured by government troops after the Battle of Culloden (1746), and of course putting her own life at risk. And later, she and her husband, through the offer of land in North Carolina, arrived just before the Revolutionary War commenced, and were on the British side. You will also learn of the change in...
2022-12-3043 min
Stopping to ThinkKing-Size Disappointment, with Dr. Jim AmbuskeIn this episode I talk with Dr. Jim Ambuske from the Washington Library to talk about Thomas Jefferson's disappointment with George III, colonial American views of the monarchy, and how those patterns of thinking have influenced the American Republic from the late 18th century on into the present. ______________________________ Enjoying the podcast? Check out the Stopping to Think Newsletter as well. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willdole.substack.com/subscribe
2022-06-2132 min
Success InSight PodcastJim Ambuske, Digital Historian at the George Washington Library at Mount Vernon, and Podcast Host and ProducerHello everyone, and welcome to the Success InSight Podcast.Our guest today is James Ambuske.Jim is a Digital Historian at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon.A historian of the American Revolution, Jim studies the relationship between Scotland and America during that era. He is also a podcaster, digital humanist, and storyteller, and he works with the general public who are interested in American history, fellow scholars, teachers, and students.Jim is also involved in two podcast productions at the Library...
2022-03-1844 min
Beautiful Bastards Podcast#68 An American Revolution with Jim AmbuskeAs a bit of a continuation of last weeks episode on presidents, this week we focus on the American Revolution. Jim Ambuske comes to us from The Washington Library to fill us in on all the things we didn't know about the catalyst for the United States separating from England back in 1776.
2022-02-211h 31
Inclusive HistoryEpisode 45 Enslavement at Mount Vernon- A Conversation with Dr. Jim AmbuskeIn this episode I talk with Dr. Jim Ambuske about his work on the podcast docuseries Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon.
2022-02-2141 min
TAO Podcast: The Pandemic PressEpisode 29: History of Pandemics with Ph.D. holder Jim AmbuskeJim Ambuske, Ph.D., leads the Center for Digital History at the Washington Library. A historian of the American Revolution, Scotland, and the British Atlantic World, Ambuske graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016. He is a former Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Virginia Law Library. At UVA Law, Ambuske co-directed the 1828 Catalogue Project and the Scottish Court of Session Project. He discusses about the history of pandemics.Books recommended are:Elizabeth Feen, Pox American: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 (2002); John M. Barry, The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest...
2021-09-2852 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library199. Unravelling the Strange Genius of Mr. O. with Dr. Carolyn EastmanIn the early years of the nineteenth century, former Virginia schoolteacher James Ogilvie embarked on a lecture tour that took the United States by storm. Born Scotland, Ogilvie became a renowned orator, packing rooms in urban Philadelphia and rural Kentucky alike. As he crisscrossed the nation, lecturing on topics that spoke to American anxieties about the fate of their young republic, Ogilvie became a major celebrity. Many Americans admired him, some even hated him, as he asked them to look into the mirror to see themselves. On today’s show, Dr. Carolyn Eastman joins Jim Ambuske to discuss her new bo...
2021-04-1652 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library198. Contesting Monuments and Memory in South Carolina with Dr. Lydia BrandtThe South Carolina State House Grounds is a landscape of monuments and memory. Since the capital moved from Charleston to Columbia in the 1780s, South Carolinians have been erecting, moving, and contesting monuments on the capitol’s grounds, using them to debate the past as they really argue about their present. Monuments and statues are the subject of great debate right now, not only in the United States, but around the world, and South Carolina’s commemorations can help us to understand why. In 1858, South Carolinians purchased a George Washington statute for their capitol grounds, as did other legislatures in the...
2021-04-0254 min
ITPS PodcastEpisode 8, Part II: Live Embodiment Storytelling with Conversations at the Washington LibraryNote: This episode originally aired on January 30, 2020.In May 1796, Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s enslaved maidservant, freed herself by walking out of the Washington’s Philadelphia home. She had learned that Martha intended to give her away as a wedding present to Elizabeth Parke Custis, her eldest granddaughter. Judge quietly slipped out of the house one evening, boarded a ship, and fled to New Hampshire. She lived there for the rest of her life. Despite their best efforts, the Washingtons were never able to recapture her.On today’s episode, Ona Judge tells her own story...
2021-03-291h 00
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library197. Stumbling Upon the Journal of Johann Peter Oettinger with Craig Koslofsky and Roberto ZauggTwo weeks ago, we brought you the story of Johann Peter Oettinger, a seventeenth-century German-speaking barber-surgeon who in 1693 journeyed to Africa and the West Indies on behalf of the Brandenburg African Company. His journal from that period captures the height of German participation in the transatlantic slave trade. Today, we bring you the story of the journal itself and how two historians, Craig Koslofsky and Robert Zaugg, found the manuscript independently of one another in the Berlin archives. The journal’s history is as important as its contents. How we interpret the history within it means we need to know so...
2021-03-1856 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library196. Reconstructing the Life of a German Barber-Surgeon in the Atlantic Slave Trade with Craig Koslofsky and Roberto ZauggIn 1693, the young German barber-surgeon Johann Peter Oettinger joined a slave trading venture for the second time. In the employ of the Brandenburg African Company, Oettinger sailed with his shipmates from Europe to the African coast where they procured their captive human cargo, took the middle passage to the West Indies, and exchanged their enslaved people in the colonies for a variety of goods. Along the way, Oettinger encountered a mix of European, African, and colonial peoples who traded or were traded, across borders, often regardless of nationality. We know about Oettinger’s involvement because he...
2021-03-0459 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library195b. [En Español] Ofreciendo a George Washington un regalo real con el profesor José Emilio YanesBienvenido a Conversaciones en la Biblioteca de Washington. Hoy, Jim Ambuske habla con el profesor José Emilio Yanes de la Universidad de Salamanca en España. Yanes es el autor del libro El Regalo de Carlos III A George Washington: El periplo de Royal Gift. El libro cuenta la historia de cómo un burro jugó un papel importante en la relación diplomática entre España y los nuevos Estados Unidos. Muchas gracias a Allan Winn, Jr. por traducir durante nuestra conversación. Gracias por escuchar. Obtenga más información sobre George Washington y...
2021-02-1830 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library195a. Offering George Washington a Royal Gift with Professor José Emilio YanesIn 1784, King Charles III of Spain sent George Washington a token of his esteem. Knowing that Washington had long sought a Spanish donkey for his Mount Vernon estate, the king permitted a jack to be exported to the new United States. Washington named the donkey Royal Gift in recognition of its royal origin, and the donkey became somewhat of a minor celebrity when he disembarked from his ship in 1785. As it turns out, Spanish jacks like Royal Gift were highly prized animals in the Atlantic world. And in this case the Spanish, who had supported the United...
2021-02-1843 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library194. Building Digital History Projects at the Washington Library with the ITPS InternsOne of the most important things we’re able to do at the Center for Digital History is offer internships to college students. Working with students allows us to move our projects forward while giving them real world opportunities to do the kind of work that historians do, and development skills that will hopefully serve them well later in life. Now, we’ve talked about our internship program on the show before – you might recall our chat with Jamie Morris of Washington College – and today you’ll get to hear from three excellent students who joined our...
2021-02-0542 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library193. Rifling through Washington's Receipts with Dr. Julie MillerTake a receipt out of your pocket. What does it say about you? Receipts can tell us a lot about people and the world in which they lived. And George Washington kept receipts. On today’s show, Dr. Julie Miller joins Jim Ambuske to discuss the hidden lives we can find in Washington’s receipts and similar documents. Dr. Miller is a historian and the Curator of Early American Manuscripts at the Library of Congress, where she oversees a vast array of archival material, including Washington Papers. She’s also one of the forces behind the Li...
2021-01-2153 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library192. Drinking Washington's Whiskey with Drew HannushFor many people, one of life’s great joys is a lovely dram of whiskey. Whether you’re a fan of Kentucky Bourbon, Single-malt Scotches, Japanese or Tennessee whiskey, every glass tells a story or contains memories that connect drinkers to different places, and different times. For Jim Ambuske, a dram of Cragganmore 12 instantly takes him back to Edinburgh, where he's spent many months hunting American Revolutionaries in the archives. But like most folks, he knows less about the stories behind the whiskies than I would like. That’s where Drew Hannush comes in. On today’s show, you’ll meet Dre...
2021-01-0744 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library190. (Recast) The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret with Mary Thompson: Part 1Forty years ago, Mary V. Thompson began her career at Mount Vernon as a museum attendant and history interpreter. She was quickly promoted to Curatorial Assistant, and within a few short years was named Curatorial Registrar, where she began researching numerous Washington and Mount Vernon related topics such as 18th-century foodways, animals, religion, Native Americans, genealogy, domestic life, & slavery. Today, she is the Washington Library’s indispensable Research Historian, and as many of our listeners no doubt know, she is the go to person for all things Mount Vernon and Washington. In celebration of Mary’s 40...
2020-12-3131 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library191. (Recast) The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret with Mary Thompson: Part 2This is Part Two of Jim Ambuske's July 2019 chat with Washington Library Research Historian Mary V. Thompson. We’re recasting it in celebration of her 40th anniversary at Mount Vernon. If you missed Part One, please do give it a listen. Happy New Year to you all. About Our Guest: Mary V. Thompson is a long-time (38 year) member of the staff at Mount Vernon, where she is now the Research Historian. She is the author of In the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington, A Short Biography of Ma...
2020-12-3140 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library189. Confronting an Absolutist Monarch with Dr. Karie SchultzIn this season of religious renewal, we bring you a story of religious dissent. In 1638, many of King Charles I’s Presbyterian subjects gathered at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh to sign the National Covenant. By renewing their own covenant with the Almighty, they also pledged to resist encroachments on church government by the king, and the innovations in doctrine he sought to make for the Church of Scotland. As we’ve discovered in previous episodes, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of religious upheaval and political discord. Reformation and Civil War remade European society, especially in t...
2020-12-2449 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library188. Exploring the Benjamin Franklin House of London with Dr. Márcia BaliscianoIn 1757, Benjamin Franklin returned to London after an over thirty-year absence. He first ventured to the imperial capital in 1724 to continue his education as a printer; he went back in the late 1750s as a politician, after being named the London agent for the Pennsylvania Assembly. Franklin took up residence at 36 Craven Street in London, today just down the way from Charing Cross Station, and right near Trafalgar Square. For nearly two decades, with a short return to Philadelphia in between, Franklin lived on Craven Street as he tried to advance colonial interests in the mother country. O...
2020-12-1752 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library187. Winning a Consolation Prize with Dr. Abby MullenConsuls are essential to American foreign relations. Although they may not be as flashy or as powerful as an Ambassador like Thomas Jefferson or John Quincy Adams, they’re often the goto people when an American gets in trouble abroad or when a trade deal needs to get done. Consuls operate in cities and towns throughout the world, helping to advance American interests and maintain good relations with their host countries, all while helping you replace your lost passport. Much has changed about the consular service since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when a consul co...
2020-12-1050 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library186. Exploring New Frontiers in Early American History with Alexi Garrett, Michael Blaakman, Derek O’Leary, and Krysten BlackstoneIn the eighteenth century, Benjamin Franklin and other early Americans likened themselves to a rising people who were creating something new under the sun. It’s fair to say that historians have a similar mindset: we’re constantly striving to uncover new evidence, make new arguments, and offer new interpretations that help us better explain the past. So on today’s show, we’re going to introduce you to just a few among a rising generation of historians who are doing cutting edge work in early American history. Recently, the Washington Library partnered with the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jeff...
2020-12-031h 34
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library185. Seeking a City of Refuge in the Great Dismal Swamp with Marcus P. NeviusThe Great Dismal Swamp is a remarkable feature of the southern coastal plain. Spanning from Norfolk, Virginia to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the Swamp is now a National Wildlife Refuge home to Bald cypress, black bears, otters, and over 200 species of birds, among many other critters. But in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was the home to the ambitions of planters and businessmen who sought to transform the swamp into a plantation enterprise of rice, timber, and other commodities. It was also home to the enslaved individuals who labored to make those dreams a reality.
2020-11-1952 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library184. Becoming Citizens of Convenience on the U.S.-Canadian Border with Lawrence B. A. HatterIn 1783, the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed American independence. As part of the treaty negotiations, American and British diplomats had to determine the new nation’s borders. They used maps like John Mitchell’s 1755 work A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America to figure out what separated the United States from what remained of British America in Canada. You can see a digital copy of the Mitchell Map here. In our own time, the U.S. border with Mexico gets all the attention, but in the eigh...
2020-11-1247 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library183. Trading Spaces in the Colonial Marketplace with Emma HartWith another American presidential election behind us, talk will inevitably turn to the economy and how the president will handle it. That begs a series of questions as we turn our thoughts back to the eighteenth century: How did early Americans think about the marketplace and the economy? How did they believe that were supposed to function? How were the butcher, the baker, the candle stick maker, and their aristocratic overlords supposed to relate to one another in the marketplace? And how did early settlers map older European ideas about the economy and the public good onto...
2020-11-0540 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library182. Recording an Oral History of the Obama Presidency with Evan D. McCormickWhat is a legacy? As the artist Lin-Manual Miranda tells us, it’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. American presidents, regardless of party, spend a great deal of time during their presidencies and after they leave office thinking about their own legacies, and how people will study and remember their administrations. Whether the 2020 presidential election results in a second term for President Trump or an inaugural one for a President Biden, both men and the people in their administrations are or will be thinking about what to plant in those ga...
2020-10-291h 05
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library181. Electioneering Rage with Kelly FlemingIn 1784, British men went to the polls. It was a pivotal contest in the aftermath of the American Revolution, following a slew of prime ministers who had tried and failed to form governments that satisfied the British electorate, and King George III. British women played a critical role in this election, even though they could not vote. They canvased for votes according to very specific social customs, and accessorized their clothing and bodies to signal support for their respective candidates. They wore muffs, passed out cockades and ribbons, and plied the electorate with beer. And when women slipped outside the...
2020-10-2245 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library180. Reading Letters by Early American Women with Kathryn GehredIf you pull any decent history book off your shelf right now, odds are that it’s filled with quotes from letters, diaries, or account books that help the author tell her story and provide the evidence for her interpretation of the past. It’s almost always the case that the quotation you read in a book is just one snippet of a much longer document. Perhaps, for example, Catharine Greene’s letters to her husband Nathanael offer the reader insight into some aspect of the family business she was running while Nathanael served in the southern theate...
2020-10-151h 04
Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant: A Women's HistoryEpisode 9: Begin The World Again A NeweFlora MacDonald to John Mackenzie of Delvine, 12 August 1772. In which Scottish Jacobite Flora MacDonald, formerly on house arrest in London for helping Charles Edward escape from Scotland, writes about her son's behavior and her plans to emigrate to America. MANY thanks to this week's guest, Dr. Jim Ambuske, host of the excellent podcast out of Mount Vernon: Conversations at the Washington Library. Further Reading: Check out Dr. Ambuske's podcast! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-at-the-washington-library/id1113901706 More on Flora MacDonald: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Flora-Macdonald Her portrait: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_MacDonald#/media/File:Floramacdonald2...
2020-10-1333 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library179. Revitalizing Myaamia Language and Culture with George IronstrackIn the eighteenth century, the Myaamia people inhabited what are now parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. More commonly known in English as the Miami, the Myaamia figure prominently in the early history of the United States, especially in the 1790s, when war chief Mihšihkinaahkwa (or Little Turtle) co-led an alliance of Miami and Shawnee warriors that defeated successive American armies in the Ohio valley before meeting defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. In the battle’s wake, through treaty and subterfuge, Americans dispossessed the Myaamia of their lands, removing them first to Kan...
2020-10-081h 11
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library178. Digitally Interning at the Washington Library with Jamie MorrisThe Washington Library's Center for Digital History often collaborates with students to advance its research and public history projects. That can take many forms. We work regularly with faculty to integrate our digital projects into their course assignments, on other occasions we deliver lectures to students about digital history or some aspect of eighteenth-century history, and we’re also fortunate to work with student interns throughout the year who assist with our projects while they gain practical, real world experience in the historical profession. On today’s episode, we’re excited to bring you a chat with Jamie M...
2020-10-0131 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library177. Harnessing Harmony in the Early Republic with Billy ColemanOn September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key began composing "The Star-Spangled Banner after witnessing the British attack on Fort McHenry. Of all the things he could have done after seeing that flag, why did Key write a song? And how did his new composition fit into a much longer history of music as a form of political persuasion in the Early Republic? On today’s episode, Dr. Billy Coleman joins us explore the power of music in the early United States, and how Federalists in particular used it as a kind of weapon to advance their vision of a har...
2020-09-241h 05
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library176. Hunting Satan in Scotland and the Atlantic World with Michelle D. BrockThe Prince of Darkness wrought havoc on the souls of seventeenth-century Christians living throughout the Atlantic world. Whether they called him Satan, the Devil, Beelzebub, or by any other name, Lucifer tempted men and women to break their covenant with God in Heaven and do his dark bidding on Earth. At a time of great religious upheaval, when the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe and across the ocean to England’s American colonies, fears of Satan’s malevolent influence and the search for signs of his deeds were particularly intense in Scotland. A Reformation driven larg...
2020-09-1755 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library175. Finding Redemption from Tyranny with Bruce StewartConversations at the Washington Library kicks off Season 5 by exploring the life of a radical populist who never met a revolution he didn’t like. Almost unbelievably, Herman Husband participated in some of the most significant events in eighteenth-century America: The Great Awakening; the North Carolina Regulation Movement; The American Revolution; and the Whiskey Rebellion. Husband’s story illuminates the major religious, political, and economic upheavals that reshaped North America in this period, and we might just see some parallels between his time and our own. On today’s show, Dr. Bruce Stewart, a professor of his...
2020-09-1054 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library174. (Recast) Tracing the Rise and Fall of Light-Horse Harry Lee with Ryan ColeThis episode originally aired in September 2019. You may know him as Robert E. Lee’s father, but Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was so much more. Born into a Virginia dynasty, the man who would become one of George Washington’s protégés came of age with the American Revolution itself. Lee was a graduate of Princeton University, a cavalry commander in the war’s brutal southern theater, and he later served two terms as Virginia’s governor. He was a dashing figure who romanticized the ancient world and aspired to be one of the new nation’s g...
2020-09-0353 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library169. Re-investigating an Early American Murder with Jessica LoweSeason 5 of Conversations at the Washington Library is just around the corner. Until then, we're happy to bring you Jim Ambuske's recent live stream chat with Dr. Jessica Lowe of the University of Virginia School of Law. Long-time fans of the podcast will recognize Dr. Lowe’s name from an episode Ambuske recorded with her in 2019. Their live stream conversation gave them a chance to go much deeper into the horrid crime at the heart of Lowe's book, Murder in the Shenandoah: Making Law Sovereign in Revolution Virginia, and what it means for our own modern struggle for...
2020-07-301h 04
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library168. Mining King George III's Papers with Zara Anishanslin and Arthur BurnsWhile work continues on the podcast's upcoming Season 5, we’re pleased to offer you another summer interlude. For today’s show, we bring you the audio version of Jim Ambuske's recent live stream chat with Professors Zara Anishanslin and Arthur Burns about the Georgian Papers Programme. Now, most of you probably know that some Americans had a little - shall we say – disagreement with King George III two centuries ago. Something about taxation, tea, and tyranny. But did you know that researchers, librarians, and digital humanists on both sides of the pond are busy di...
2020-07-231h 13
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library164. Battling Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay with Jamie L. H. GoodallDuring the American Revolution, the Chesapeake Bay was a pirate’s nest. The men who plied the Bay’s waters had shifting loyalties, competing interests, and a keen sense of how to use the law to legitimize their actions. In fact, they are part of a much richer history of piracy in the Bay. From the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, pirates were a constant feature of Chesapeake society. They connected the Bay and its communities with the wider Atlantic world, and even to the Indian Ocean. And in later years, they battled loca...
2020-06-2558 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library163. Returning to Lives Bound Together on Juneteenth with Jessie MacLeodThis Friday marks the anniversary of Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates the moment on June 19, 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas learned they were freed by Emancipation Proclamation and the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War. It is also known as Freedom Day or Liberation Day. To celebrate, Brenda Parker, Mount Vernon Character Interpreter & African American Interpretation & Special Projects Coordinator, will perform Freedom Skies, a special Live Stream event on Juneteenth focused on the experiences of four individuals at Mount Vernon on Manumission Day—January 1, 1801—when Martha Washington freed the late George Washington’s enslaved people. You...
2020-06-1852 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library162. Ending Washington's Life with Jonathan HornIn March 1797, newly-inaugurated president John Adams thought he detected a glint of joy in George Washington’s eyes as the aging Virginian stepped off the world stage. Adams told his wife Abigail it was as if Washington was thinking, “I am fairly out and you fairly in! see which of Us will be happiest.” The first president had grown tired of the partisan rancor that plagued his second term and longed to sit under his own vine and fig tree at Mount Vernon in peace. But Washington’s vision of a tranquil retirement was not to be. In the l...
2020-06-1147 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library161. (Repeat) Finding Ona Judge's Voice with Sheila ArnoldNote: This episode originally aired on January 30, 2020. In May 1796, Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s enslaved maidservant, freed herself by walking out of the Washington’s Philadelphia home. She had learned that Martha intended to give her away as a wedding present to Elizabeth Parke Custis, her eldest granddaughter. Judge quietly slipped out of the house one evening, boarded a ship, and fled to New Hampshire. She lived there for the rest of her life. Despite their best efforts, the Washingtons were never able to recapture her. On today’s episode, Ona Judge tells her ow...
2020-06-041h 01
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library160. Recasting Tacky's Revolt as an Atlantic Slave War with Vincent BrownVirginia is a landscape shaped by slavery and the enslaved communities who labored in bondage on plantations like Mount Vernon, Monticello, and the smaller farms that surrounded these large estates. But in the eighteenth century, Virginia, New York, South Carolina, and other mainland colonies with sizable enslaved populations paled in comparison to the importance, profitably, and human complexity of the Island of Jamaica. Jamaica was the crown jewel of the British Empire in this period. It was arguably the most important colony in British America, so much so that during the American Revolution, British authorities...
2020-05-281h 00
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library159. Preserving Historic Real Estate with Whitney MartinkoIn 1812, Pennsylvania state legislators contemplated something that most Americans would now find completely unimaginable: demolishing Independence Hall in Philadelphia, converting the site to a series of building lots, and using the proceeds to fund construction of a new statehouse in Harrisburg. Fortunately, Philly’s city leaders pushed back against state officials and preserved this historic landmark for future generations, allowing visitors to commune with the ghosts of the Founding Generation who had taken a “leap in the dark” toward independence and later designed the new Constitution. But saving Independence Hall, and indeed any historic structure, wasn’t...
2020-05-2147 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library158. Praying to the Adams Family Gods with Sara GeorginiIn November 1800, President John Adams composed a letter to his wife, Abigail, just after he moved into the new White House. He concluded his letter to his “dearest friend” this way: “I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.” As the quote suggests, God was an ever present force in the life of John Adams and his family, and while they hoped that providence would smile on the United States, they lived in a rep...
2020-05-1459 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library157. Finding the Hidden Families behind the Boston Massacre with Serena ZabinOn the evening of March 5, 1770, Captain Thomas Preston and a small contingent of British Redcoats under his command fired into a crowd of civilians massing on King Street in Boston, killing several people. Many of us are familiar with Paul Revere’s famous engraving of what he called “the Bloody Massacre,” what we now know as “the Boston Massacre.” But Revere’s depiction of the incident obscures much more than it reveals about the thousands of connections between Bostonians and the British Army in the years before the American Revolution. On today's episode, we're please...
2020-05-071h 02
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library156. Making a Pilgrimage to Washington's Tomb with Matthew CostelloIn December 1799, George Washington died after a short illness. His body and his legacy quickly became fodder for nineteenth century Americans – free and enslaved – who were struggling to make sense of what it meant to be an American as well as the nation’s identity. Americans across the divide used Washington and his memory to advance various political and economic interests. Some, like Federalists, yoked their political fortunes and their belief in a strong central government to Washington’s legacy, much to the abhorrence of Jeffersonian Republicans, who championed the yeoman farmer and a smaller federal...
2020-04-3055 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library155. Painting Portraits of Colonial Virginia with Janine Yorimoto BoldtIn 1757, Martha Dandridge Custis paid the artist John Wollaston the handsome sum of 56 pistoles for portraits of her, her husband Daniel Parke Custis, and their children, John and Martha. A pistole was a Spanish gold coin commonly used in the colony at the time. The future Mrs. Martha Washington was among the hundreds of Virginians who had their portraits painted over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They used portraiture to depict their wealth and status among the Virginia aristocracy, communicate ideas about gender, and cement their identities as cultured members of the British Empire.
2020-04-2341 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library154. Recovering the Founding Legacy of Dr. Benjamin Rush with Stephen FriedIn 1793, the dreaded Yellow Fever swept through Philadelphia. The deadly virus raced through the nation’s capital between August and November, killing at least 5,000 of the city’s inhabitants. Among the multi-racial group of Americans on the front lines of the battle against the disease was Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a key figure in the nation’s early medical establishment. Rush, who was the architect of the reunion between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams after years of bitter silence between the two men, was a Founding Father in his ow...
2020-04-161h 18
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library153. Putting Secession and Jefferson Davis on Trial with Cynthia NicolettiIn May 1865, Union forces captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Georgia as the Civil War neared its end. Davis had led the Confederate States of America since 1861. He was taken to Fortress Monroe in Virginia, clapped in irons, and given a Bible to read as he awaited his fate. He had waged war against the United States as the commander in chief of a rebel force, and the Constitution was clear: This was treason. And treason was punishable by death. On the surface, you might think that the federal prosecution of Davis for treason...
2020-04-091h 04
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library152. Creating George Washington's Cabinet with Lindsay ChervinskyThere are many things that we take for granted in the modern United States. The president’s cabinet is one of them. Although the cabinet is a prominent fixture of the federal government, and a powerful and essential one at that, it has no foundation in the Constitution. The Framer’s discussed the idea of a cabinet at the Constitutional Convention, but they ultimately rejected it and left it on the cutting room floor. Yet, despite the fact that the cabinet has no Constitutional origin, it does have a historical one. On today’s epis...
2020-04-0250 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library151. Going Timbering and Turtling in the Caribbean with Mary DraperThree hundred years ago, timber and turtles were key commodities for English settlers on Barbados and Jamaica. Barbadians sailed northwest to the island of St. Lucia where they harvested timber while Jamaicans headed to the Cayman Islands to take turtles in astounding numbers. Why did they seek these resources hundreds of miles away from their home islands? And what does it have to tell us about how settlers adapted to the environment in the early modern Caribbean? On today’s episode, Dr. Mary Draper joins Jim Ambuske to flesh out how timber and tu...
2020-03-2640 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library150. Teaching Online in a Time of Covid-19 with Sadie TroyIt's mid-March 2020 and chances are you're listening to this episode from the comfort of your home as you practice social distancing. Over the past few weeks many schools and businesses has suspended public operations and transitioned to an online environment in an effort to help limit the spread of the coronavirus, known as Covid-19. While the Washington Library and Mount Vernon may temporarily be closed to the public as well, that doesn't mean we're not hard at work doing what we can to help students, teachers, and scholars make the most of this uncertain time. We've created a...
2020-03-1941 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library149. Charting a Geographer's Career with Ron GrimDr. Ron Grim has been a geographer for over 40 years. After receiving his PhD from the University of Maryland, Ron embarked on a career that included stops at the National Archives of the United States, the Library of Congress, and the Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library. On today’s episode, Ron joins Jim Ambuske to discuss his long career as a geographer working with maps at these prestigious institutions. Geography is the study of humanity’s relationship with the Earth and its landscape, something that maps help to illuminate. As you’ll hear...
2020-03-1244 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library148. Inventing Disaster with Cindy KiernerOn the morning of November 1, 1755, a devastating earthquake struck the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. The quake leveled buildings, triggered fires, and caused a tsunami that laid waste to the urban landscape. When it was all over, thousands were dead. The Lisbon earthquake was a disaster of epic proportions, so much so that it became the subject of the first major international disaster relief effort. People from around the Atlantic world contributed funds to Lisbon and its inhabitants, including a £100,000 donation from King George II of Great Britain. The quake also marked a change in how peo...
2020-03-0548 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library147. Setting the Table for the American Cincinnatus with Ron FuchsIn 1784, Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Shaw set sail on the Empress of China destined for the city of Canton, or Guangzhou, in southern China. Shaw was a Boston native who served under Major General Henry Knox during the War for Independence. He also became one of the founding members of the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary, and at times controversial, organization made up of American and French officers who served in the Continental Army during the war. George Washington served as the society’s president from 1783 to 1799. Shaw went to China acting on...
2020-02-2749 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library146. Doing Public History at Mount Vernon with Jeanette PatrickLike many folks around the country, you might have spent the last three evenings watching Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Washington documentary series on the History Channel. Documentaries are a form of public history, which we might define loosely as making historical knowledge available and accessible for the public’s benefit. At Mount Vernon, we think about how to do this work a great deal. How can we create frameworks for public understanding of the past that balances expertise with accessibility? On today’s episode, Jeanette Patrick discusses her efforts to make the Washingtons, Mount...
2020-02-2035 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library145. Creating the New Map of Empire with Max EdelsonWhen the British defeated the French and their allies in the Seven Years’ War, they acquired vast new territories that expanded British America. Britain’s North America Empire grew to include New Brunswick in Canada, Florida on the southern mainland, and Caribbean Islands like Dominica, among many other places. How would the British meld these spaces – spaces that were religiously and ethnically diverse, characterized by both free and enslaved labor, and fraught with tension between indigenous peoples and white settlers – into a coherent empire? Well, first they had to map them. In the decade b...
2020-02-1342 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library144. Sizing Up the Thigh Men of Dad History with Alexis CoeThe modern biography as we know it dates to the eighteenth century when Scottish author and lawyer James Boswell published The Life of Samuel Johnson. Boswell produced an account of the rascally Englishman, a friend of his for more than twenty years, that became a kind of template that future biographers have followed. We've all read our fair share of biographies, especially presidential biographies, to know that they follow a similar structure. This is especially true of biographies of the American Revolutionary generation. So how can we shake up this genre? And perhaps more importantly...
2020-02-0655 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library143. Finding Ona Judge's Voice with Sheila ArnoldIn May 1796, Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s enslaved maidservant, freed herself by walking out of the Washington’s Philadelphia home. She had learned that Martha intended to give her away as a wedding present to Elizabeth Parke Custis, her eldest granddaughter. Judge quietly slipped out of the house one evening, boarded a ship, and fled to New Hampshire. She lived there for the rest of her life. Despite their best efforts, the Washingtons were never able to recapture her. On today’s episode, Ona Judge tells her own story. Library Research Fellow Sheila Arnold joins Jim Ambuske in cha...
2020-01-301h 00
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library142. Plotting against General Washington with Mark Edward LenderIn late 1777, George Washington’s disappointing performance as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army was a source of growing concern among some army officers and members of Congress. While he had won important victories at Princeton and Trenton months earlier, he had lost New York City, and Philadelphia, and suffered defeats at Brandywine and Germantown. Patriots intended to win the war, not lose it. And to win it, some came to believe that Washington ought to be removed from power, or at least his authority weakened. On today’s episode, Dr. Mark Edward Lender joins Jim Ambuske to discu...
2020-01-2356 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library141. Accounting for Women in the Business of Slavery with Alexi GarrettWhen George Washington died in December 1799, it changed Martha Washington’s legal status. Just as she did when she was widowed for the first time in 1757, Martha once again became an independent person in the eyes of the law. She was no longer in the shadow of her husband’s legal identity. So what did this mean for Martha and other unmarried or widowed elite white women who ran businesses powered by slavery in early Virginia? How did they negotiate contracts, oversee enslaved labor, and manage their estates, all while navigating society’s expectations for women of their...
2020-01-1651 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library140. (Repeat) Republican Laws and Monarchical Education with Mark BoonshoftThis episode originally aired in June 2019. Once the United States achieved its independence, how did white Americans expect to educate the new republic's youth? How did questions about education become a flash point in the battle between Federalists and Republicans over the meaning of the American Revolution and the nation's soul? On today's episode, Dr. Mark Boonshoft of Norwich University joins Jim Ambuske to discuss how ideas about education were part of a larger argument about who should rule, and who should rule at home as Americans struggled to form a more perfect union.
2020-01-0931 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library139. Harnessing the Power of Washington's Genealogy with Karin WulfEarly Americans like George Washington obsessed over genealogy. Much was at stake. One's place on the family tree could mean the difference between inheriting a plantation like Mount Vernon and its enslaved community, or working a patch of hardscrabble. Genealogy was very much a matter of custom, culture, and law, which explains in part why Washington composed a long-ignored document tracing his own lineage. It was as much a reflection of his family's past as it was a road map to his future power, wealth, and authority. On today's episode, Dr. Karin Wulf helps us understand the...
2020-01-0248 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library137. Seeing the British Side of the American Revolution with Andrew O'ShaughnessyWhat does the American Revolution look like from a British vantage point? How does that change the way we think about the origins of the United States, and major figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or George III? And in the new republic, how did Jefferson try to keep the revolution alive through his ideas on education. On today’s episode, Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy helps us explore these questions. O’Shaughnessy is a historian of the American Revolution. He is also the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studie...
2019-12-1950 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library136. Executing Major John André with D.A.B. RonaldOn October 2, 1780, Major John André was executed as a spy on George Washington’s orders. The British officer had convinced American general Benedict Arnold to switch allegiances, but having been caught in the act, André was condemned to die a spy's death. He was hung from the gallows like a common criminal, having been denied the honor of facing a firing squad, like an officer and a gentleman. He took comfort in the fact that it would “be but a momentary pang.” While you may know André best for bagging Arnold, and meeting his death bravely, you may not kno...
2019-12-1256 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library135. Editing Early America with Nadine ZimmerliDr. Nadine Zimmerli recently joined The University of Virginia Press as its editor of History and Social Sciences books. A former editor at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, Zimmerli is a historian of 20th century Europe by training. She is also a native of Germany, having grown up in East Germany in the years surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall. In this episode, Dr. Zimmerli shares with Jim Ambuske what it was like to grow up in East Germany before reunification in 1990 and how her family's own history inspired her professional career as a...
2019-12-0548 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library134. A Constitutional ThanksgivingWe’re off this week for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll be back next week with conversations featuring some of the leading lights in early American history. But we didn’t want to leave you holding the short end of the wishbone. So we put together a short history lesson for you about George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789. Be sure to read the full proclamation and Professor T. K. Bryon's Digital Encyclopedia entry on the history behind it. Happy Thanksgiving! About our Host: Jim Ambuske, Ph.D. leads the Center for Digital...
2019-11-2804 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library133. Facing the Wrath of Rachel Jackson's God with Melissa GismondiIf you know anything about Rachel Jackson, chances are you know her best as Andrew Jackson’s wife. You might also know that Rachel died in late 1828, just before Andrew became president. During Andrew’s presidential campaigns in 1824 and 1828, his political enemies attacked Rachel as an adulterer. Legally speaking, she was. In the early 1790s, Rachel and Andrew learned that her first husband, Lewis Robards, had never finalized their divorce. The Jacksons’ marriage was seemingly illegitimate. After a court granted Robards a divorce in 1794 on the basis of Rachel’s alleged adultery, Rachel and Andrew married again just to b...
2019-11-2144 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library132. Quartering Troops in Early America with John McCurdyIn the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson criticized George III for "Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us" in the years before the American Revolution. To hear Jefferson tell it, quartered troops had long been a problem in early America. In this episode, Dr. John McCurdy of Eastern Michigan University reveals how the history of accommodating troops in North America is more complicated than you might think. Far from being an objectionable practice that motivated Americans to revolt against the British, colonists accepted that quartering soldiers was a necessary and even welcome event under certain conditions. McCurdy, who...
2019-11-1441 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library131. Let's Get Digital With Loren MouldsHow has technology changed the way that historians and educators tell stories about the past? What does it mean to do "digital history" and how can one get started? On today's episode, Dr. Loren Moulds of the University of Virginia Law Library sits down with Jim Ambuske to explore how technology is enhancing our ability to interpret the past. A historian of 20th century America, Moulds's work on backyard barbecues and federal housing policy shapes the way he thinks about the role technology can play to recover hidden voices from obscure sources. You'll hear about the Law L...
2019-11-0755 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library130. Writing the History of Early America for Children with David Bruce SmithHistorians spend a lot of time thinking about audience. Whether speaking at academic meetings, talking with the general public, or teaching students, we consider how we can best communicate our ideas to different groups. So how do we write the history of Early America for a much younger crowd? In a world full of hungry caterpillars and pigeons eager to drive city buses, how do we communicate the complexity of the past to children? Author David Bruce Smith sits down with Jim Ambuske to discuss his new book, Abigail & John, a portrait of the famous A...
2019-10-3134 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library129. Mapping a Nation with Erin Holmes and Janine Yorimoto BoldtMaps do more than visualize landscapes, identify political borders, or chart rivers and oceans. They show us the many and varied ways that we make sense of the world around us. How then, did Early Americans make sense of their world through maps? Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic offers one answer. It is an exhibit currently on display at the American Philosophical Society (APS) in Philadelphia. Using maps, the tools to make them, and other objects, the exhibition shows "how maps were used to create and extend the physical, political, and ideological boundaries of t...
2019-10-2436 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library128. Digitizing the Constitution with Julie SilverbrookThe word “impeachment” is in the air these days. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a website to find information about what the Constitution’s framers thought about impeachment or any other Constitutional issue. Well, The Constitutional Sources Project is the place for you. The project, called ConSource for short, is a Washington, D.C.-based initiative to digitize and transcribe the documents that shaped the Federal Constitution, and increase our historical literacy. On today’s episode, you’ll hear from Julie Silverbrook, ConSource’s executive director. Julie is an attorney and she is lea...
2019-10-1752 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library127. Walking through The Field of Blood with Joanne B. FreemanWhat comes to mind when you think about Congress in the nineteenth century? Perhaps you imagine great orators like Henry Clay or Daniel Webster declaiming on the important issues then facing the republic. And yes, in 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate. But Congress generally was model of solemnity, right? Well, you would be wrong. As Dr. Joanne B. Freeman of Yale University argues in her latest book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to...
2019-10-1053 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library126. Entering a World of Paine with Harlow Giles UngerOn today’s show, veteran journalist and biographer Harlow Giles Unger talks to Jim Ambuske about revolutionary radical Thomas Paine, one of his predecessors in the newspaper business. He is the author of the new book, Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence. It is the latest in a long line of Unger biographies about the founding generation. Unger reveals a fascinating character in Paine, a man who never met a revolution he didn’t like. He also shares with Ambuske about how his previous life as a journalist informs his appr...
2019-10-0351 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library125. Simulating 1793 and the Fate of the Republic with Trey Alsup and Sadie TroyImagine you lived in the year 1793. The United States has recently suffered its worst military defeat in its history at the hands of the Miami-Shawnee Confederacy. The French Revolution has turned horrifically violent and France is now at war with most of Europe. And both the British and the French are pressuring the United States to choose a side. Now imagine that you are one of the American, European, or indigenous leaders whose voices will shape how the U.S. responds to these events. Well, now you can be. On today’s show, Game designer Trey Alsup and Mount Ver...
2019-09-2656 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library124. The Power Broker and the King Maker: The Life of Elizabeth Willing Powel with Samantha SnyderIn this episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Samantha Snyder speaks to Jim Ambuske about the life of Elizabeth Willing Powel. Powel was a prominent Philadelphian who became close to the Washington family. Although her loyalties were unclear in the early years of the American War for Independence, she eventually embraced the Revolution. Powel was at the center of Philadelphia politics, but her influence reached beyond the city to the banks of the Potomac and places further afield. In an era in which women could not vote or hold elected office, Powel was a power broker and king...
2019-09-1945 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library123. Tracing the Rise and Fall of Light-Horse Harry Lee with Ryan ColeYou may know him as Robert E. Lee’s father, but Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was so much more. Born into a Virginia dynasty, the man who would become one of George Washington’s protégés came of age with the American Revolution itself. Lee was a graduate of Princeton University, a cavalry commander in the war’s brutal southern theater, and he later served two terms as Virginia’s governor. He was a dashing figure who romanticized the ancient world and aspired to be one of the new nation’s great slave-holding planters. But death and despair undercut the lif...
2019-09-1253 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library122. Making Sense of Murder in the Shenandoah with Jessica Lowe: Explorations in Early American Law Part 4On July 4, 1791, fifteen years after Americans declared independence, two men walked into a Virginia field. Only one walked out alive. John Crane, the son of an elite Virginia family, killed a man named Abraham Vanhorn after the two exchanged some heated words. Crane was arrested in the name of the law, but two decades earlier he would have been detained in the name of the king. Why does this change matter? And what does it have to tell us about how Virginians and other Americans remade their British identity into an American one in the...
2019-09-0544 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library121. Interpreting George Washington's Constitution with Lindsay Chervinsky: Explorations in Early American Law Part 3In the fall of 1789, George Washington ordered a printed copy of the Constitution along with the laws passed by the First Federal Congress. A book binder bound the printed sheets in leather and added the words "President of the United States" to the front cover. Washington referred to the volume as the "Acts of Congress." Inside, he made a few short marginal notations next to key passages in the Constitution. You can see a digitized version of the Acts of Congress here. Why did Washington write in this book? And what can his brief scribbles tell us...
2019-08-2959 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library120. Meeting Alexander Hamilton, Attorney at Law, with Kate Brown: Explorations in Early American Law Part 2We all know Alexander Hamilton for his service during the Revolutionary War, his tenure as the first Secretary of the Treasury, and his death at the hands of Aaron Burr. But have you met Alexander Hamilton, Attorney at Law? In Part 2 of our four-part exploration of early American law, Dr. Kate Elizabeth Brown of Western Kentucky University introduces us to a man who was as ferocious in the court room as he was battling Thomas Jefferson over the National Bank. And as Dr. Brown argues in her book, Alexander Hamilton and the Development of American Law, you can't separate...
2019-08-2248 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library119. The Transatlantic Reach of Thomas Erskine and Law in the Age of Revolutions with Nicola Phillips: Explorations in Early American Law Part 1In what ways did the United States remain bound to Great Britain in the decades after American Independence? As it turns out, the law and legal ideas served as a connection between Americans and their former British brethren. In today's episode we talk to Dr. Nicola Phillips of Royal Hollway, University of London, about the life and career of Thomas Erskine. The Scottish-born Erskine was a member of an elite family whose ranks included Henry, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and David, 11th Earl of Buchan and correspondent of George Washington. Thomas, who practiced law in England, championed ideas on...
2019-08-1541 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library118. Finding George Washington in Scotland with Rachel HoskerHow did a George Washington letter find a home Scotland? In this episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Jim Ambuske talks with Rachel Hosker, deputy head of special collections and archives manager at the University Edinburgh Library about a document that connects Washington to Adam Ferguson, one of the major figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. Recorded in Edinburgh at the library's Centre for Research Collections, Ambuske and Hosker also look over Washington's Political Legacies, a book published in New York in the months just after Washington's death. They also discuss Hosker's early fascination with manuscripts and rare books...
2019-08-0839 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library117. Resilience in a Time of War: A Special Purple Heart Commemoration Day Conversation with LTC Matthew Kutilek, USMCIn this episode, Jim Ambuske chats with LTC Matthew Kutilek, USMC, a 2001 graduate of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. Kutilek is a United States Marine Special Operations Officer with 18+ years of active duty service with multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is this year's featured speaker at Mount Vernon's Purple Heart Commemoration Day on August 10th. In this podcast, Kutilek discusses his passion for history, service in the Marine Corps, and the 2010 combat wound that changed his life. About Our Guest: Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Kutilekis an active duty Special Operations Officer in th...
2019-08-0149 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library116. Looking for Lafayette with Jordan PelleritoIn this episode, Jim Ambuske sits down with first year Ph.D. student Jordan Pellerito of the University of Missouri who is interning this summer at the Washington Library. Pellerito tells us about her Master’s degree work on the Marquis de Lafayette and how she is spending her summer working with the Library’s collection of Rare Books while researching early U.S. Chambers of Commerce. About our Guest: Jordan Pellerito is a first year Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri. Pellerito recently completed her M.A. American History at Missouri and curren...
2019-07-2934 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library115. The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret with Mary Thompson: Part 2In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske continues his conversation with the Washington Library's Research Historian Mary V. Thompson to discuss her new book, "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. Listen to Part 1 here. About Our Guest: Mary V. Thompson is a long-time (38 year) member of the staff at Mount Vernon, where she is now the Research Historian. She is the author of In the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington, A Short Biography of Martha Washington, and "The Only Una...
2019-07-1140 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library114. The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret with Mary Thompson: Part 1In this episode Dr Jim Ambuske sits down with the Washington Librarys Research Historian Mary V Thompson to discuss her new book The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret George Washington Slavery and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. About Our Guest: Mary V. Thompson is a long-time (38 year) member of the staff at Mount Vernon, where she is now the Research Historian. She is the author of In the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington, A Short Biography of Martha Washington, and "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Reg...
2019-07-0430 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library113. Republican Laws and Monarchical Education with Mark BoonshoftOnce the United States achieved its independence, how did white Americans expect to educate the new republic's youth? How did questions about education become a flash point in the battle between Federalists and Republicans over the meaning of the American Revolution and the nation's soul? On today's episode, Dr. Mark Boonshoft of Norwich University joins Jim Ambuske to discuss how ideas about education were part of a larger argument about who should rule, and who should rule at home as Americans struggled to form a more perfect union. About Our Guest: Mark Boonshoft...
2019-06-2731 min
Leadership and Legacy: Conversations at the George Washington Presidential Library112. Welcome Jim Ambuske!In this episode, Dr. Kevin Butterfield sits down with Dr. Jim Ambuske the Washington Library's new Digital Historian and future podcast host. About Our Guest: Jim Ambuske, Ph.D. leads the Center for Digital History at the Washington Library. A historian of the American Revolution, Scotland, and the British Atlantic World, Ambuske graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016. He is a former Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Virginia Law Library. At UVA Law, Ambuske co-directed the 1828 Catalogue Project and the Scottish Court of Session Project. He is currently at w...
2019-06-2030 min