Women Episodes

May 19, 2022

223. Attending a Lecture on Female Genius with Dr. Mary Sarah Bilder

In May 1787, George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. One afternoon, as he waited for the other delegates to show up so the convention could begin, Washington accompanied some ladies…
March 9, 2022

221. Reading the Political Poetry of Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin with Dr. Kait Tonti

Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin was an American poet who rhymed about some of the most important issues facing the early United States in the eighteenth century, including the British occupation of New York City during the Ameri…
Guest: Kait Tonti
Sept. 1, 2021

209. Reading Letters by Early American Women with Kathryn Gehred (Summer Repeat)

If 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 …
July 12, 2021

205. Grieving with the Widow Washington with Dr. Martha Saxton

In the eighteenth century, death stalked early Americans like a predator hunting its prey. In Virginia, as in other colonies, death made children orphans and wives widows, making a precarious existence all that much more cha…
Jan. 21, 2021

193. Rifling through Washington's Receipts with Dr. Julie Miller

Take 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 Ambus…
Oct. 29, 2020

182. Recording an Oral History of the Obama Presidency with Evan D. McCormick

What 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…
Oct. 15, 2020

180. Reading Letters by Early American Women with Kathryn Gehred

If 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 …
Aug. 20, 2020

172. Exploring White Women as Slave Owners in the American South with Stephanie Jones-Rogers

It’s easy to think of slave holding as a male profession. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and countless other men are often the names that come to mind when we think about early Americans who held other p…
Aug. 13, 2020

171. Reinterpreting Mary Ball Washington with Karin Wulf, Martha Saxton, Craig Shirley, and Charlene Boyer Lewis

On today's show, we bring you the audio from our annual Martha Washington Lecture. This year's topic was Mary Ball Washington, George's mother, and the recent work by historians to rethink what we know about her life. Dr. Ka…
May 7, 2020

157. Finding the Hidden Families behind the Boston Massacre with Serena Zabin

On 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 fa…
Jan. 16, 2020

141. Accounting for Women in the Business of Slavery with Alexi Garrett

When 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 la…
Jan. 2, 2020

139. Harnessing the Power of Washington's Genealogy with Karin Wulf

Early 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 wor…
Nov. 21, 2019

133. Facing the Wrath of Rachel Jackson's God with Melissa Gismondi

If 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 campaign…
Sept. 19, 2019

124. The Power Broker and the King Maker: The Life of Elizabeth Willing Powel with Samantha Snyder

In 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. Al…