Season 5

Sept. 15, 2021

210. Winning a Consolation Prize with Dr. Abby Mullen (Summer Repeat)

Consuls 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 go-to people when an American gets in trou…
Guest: Abby Mullen
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 …
Aug. 18, 2021

208. Harnessing Harmony in the Early Republic with Billy Coleman (Summer Repeat)

On 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? …
Aug. 4, 2021

207. Offering George Washington a Royal Gift with Professor José Emilio Yanes (Summer Repeat)

In 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 Unite…
July 22, 2021

206. Promoting Joseph Smith for President with Dr. Spencer W. McBride

The American Revolution dismembered a protestant empire. In the years during and after the war, states disestablished their churches, old and new denominations flourished, and Americans enshrined religious freedom into their…
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…
June 24, 2021

204. Raising Liberty Poles in the Early Republic with Dr. Shira Lurie

If you’ve taken part in a part in a protest recently, perhaps you carried a sign, waved a flag, or worn a special hat. But if you had grievances in the American Revolution or early Republic, you might have helped raise a Lib…
June 10, 2021

203. Planting the World of Plymouth Plantation with Dr. Carla Gardina Pestana

Plymouth Plantation occupies a powerful place in American national memory. Think of the First Thanksgiving in 1621; Englishmen escaping religious persecution; the rock marking the alleged spot where settlers first landed; an…
May 27, 2021

202. Digitizing the Maryland Loyalist Experience with Dr. Kyle Roberts and Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst

Maryland wasn’t so merry for some Americans during the Revolutionary War, especially if you happened to side with the king. Professing fealty to the Crown, for whatever reason or motivation, cost many Maryland colonists thei…
April 29, 2021

200. Transcribing From The Page with Sara and Ben Brumfield

When the COVID pandemic stuck last spring, thousands of cultural heritage sites, including the Washington Library and Mount Vernon , had to find ways to help team members do work from home. That wasn’t always easy, especiall…
April 15, 2021

199. Unravelling the Strange Genius of Mr. O. with Dr. Carolyn Eastman

In 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 urb…
April 2, 2021

198. Contesting Monuments and Memory in South Carolina with Dr. Lydia Brandt

The 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 c…
March 18, 2021

197. Stumbling Upon the Journal of Johann Peter Oettinger with Craig Koslofsky and Roberto Zaugg

Two 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 jo…
March 4, 2021

196. Reconstructing the Life of a German Barber-Surgeon in the Atlantic Slave Trade with Craig Koslofsky and Roberto Zaugg

In 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 Afr…
Feb. 18, 2021

195b. [En Español] Ofreciendo a George Washington un regalo real con el profesor José Emilio Yanes

Bienvenido 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 Wash…
Feb. 18, 2021

195a. Offering George Washington a Royal Gift with Professor José Emilio Yanes

In 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 Unite…
Feb. 4, 2021

194. Building Digital History Projects at the Washington Library with the ITPS Interns

One 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 opportun…
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…
Jan. 14, 2021

Throwing a Change-Up at the Washington Library with Jim Ambuske

We wanted to let you know of some exciting changes we’ll be making to the podcast that will allow you to hear more from groundbreaking historians and scholars in new ways. Beginning today, Conversations at the Washington Lib…
Jan. 7, 2021

192. Drinking Washington's Whiskey with Drew Hannush

For 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 conne…
Guest: Drew Hannush
Dec. 31, 2020

191. (Recast) The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret with Mary Thompson: Part 2

This 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 …
Guest: Mary Thompson
Dec. 31, 2020

190. (Recast) The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret with Mary Thompson: Part 1

Forty 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,…
Guest: Mary Thompson
Dec. 24, 2020

189. Confronting an Absolutist Monarch with Dr. Karie Schultz

In 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…
Dec. 17, 2020

188. Exploring the Benjamin Franklin House of London with Dr. Márcia Balisciano

In 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…