Conversations at the Washington Library
Conversations at the Washington Library is the premier podcast about George Washington and his Early American world.
Conversations is a production of the Center for Digital History (CDH) at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. To learn more about the CDH, visit www.mountvernon.org/cdh.
Recent Episodes
Introducing The Secrets of Washington's Archives
June 1, 2023
What did George Washington write in his personal copy of the Constitution? Who left behind messages inside some of Washington’s books? How did Washington learn to become a professional soldier? Mount Vernon introduces its la…
229. A Final Conversation with Dr. James Ambuske
May 8, 2023
In this final episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Drs. Anne Fertig and Alexandra Montgomery bid farewell to former Digital Historian and host, Dr. James Ambuske, through a retrospective of his time and work a…
228. Editing the Adams Family Papers with Dr. Sara Georgini
Nov. 28, 2022
The Adams Family is one of the more prominent families in American history. They were at the center of the American Revolution, they helped create a new republic, shaped the young nation’s foreign policy, and later were cent…
227: Welcoming a Deserving Brother with Mark Tabbert
Nov. 14, 2022
In 1752, George Washington joined the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was just twenty years old. Despite his early interest in masonry, Washington was not as active in the organization as some might imagine, bu…
226. Cross-examining Washington's Heir with Prof. Gerard Magliocca
Oct. 31, 2022
When George Washington wrote his final will in the months before he died in December 1799, he named Bushrod Washington as heir to his papers and to Mount Vernon. He took possession of his uncle’s Virginia plantation when Mar…
225. Doing Public History with Dr. Anne Fertig
Oct. 17, 2022
Why is the way that we remember the past oftentimes different than historical reality? And how can we use public history to inform conversations in the present about events that took place centuries earlier? On today’s episo…
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Recent Blog Posts
Lafayette's Map Maker Depicts the Battle of Monmouth
The Washington Library at Mount Vernon holds a vast collection of Revolutionary War-era maps, including several carried by the Marquis de Lafayette while…
About the Host
Jim Ambuske
Host, Producer, Historian, Author
Jim Ambuske, Ph.D., is Historian and Senior Producer at R2 Studios, the podcast division of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. He formerly led 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 work on a book about emigration from Scotland in the era of the American Revolution.
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