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Please join us for lunch and compelling discussion with one of our fellows, as they present their findings and their research at the George Washington Presidential Library.


Upcoming Events

Lunch at the Library: General David Wooster

March 13, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Join us for lunch and a compelling discussion with Jason Edwin Anderson, author of General David Wooster: Hero of the American Revolution, 1710-1777. This first biography of the influential figure is exhaustively researched from primary sources, covering Wooster's entire life and entire military and civic careers.

This event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. A boxed lunch (including sandwich or salad, fruit, pasta, cookie, chips, and drink) will be provided.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Gold in America

March 19, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow John Stuart Gordon's research project, Gold in America: Artistry, Memory, Power. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Gordon is researching gold objects owned by the Custis and Washington families, as well as later commemorative items in gold.

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Brown Bag Lunch: History and Historical Consciousness in the US Declaration of Independence

March 26, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Steven Sarson's research project, History and Historical Consciousness in the US Declaration of Independence. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Sarson is continuing his research for his new book entitled “When in the Course of human events”: History and Historical Consciousness in the US Declaration of Independence (University of Virginia Press, 2025) and related articles and other publications.

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Brown Bag Lunch: The Tory Rising

April 7, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Trenton Cole Jones's research project, The Tory Rising. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Jones is researching the story of a little-known insurrection of British loyalists—or Tories—that nearly destroyed the American Revolution before independence was even declared.

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Lunch at the Library: An In-Depth Look at the William Gordon Books Owned by George Washington

April 10, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Join experts from the Washington Library, Caroline Sharp and Dr. Alexandra Montgomery, to learn how George Washington and his beloved Mount Vernon estate shaped the creation of one of the earliest published histories of the American Revolution. 

They will share details regarding an incredibly important 1st edition, four-volume set of books owned by Washington, The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America by William Gordon. The Library would like to thank Ambassador Nicholas F. Taubman for his generous loan of these volumes.

This special event is part of the Washington Library's Lunch at the Library series. Lunch will be provided.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Macaroni and Beyond

April 18, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Karima Moyer-Nocchi's research project, Macaroni and Beyond - From James Hemings to African American Women: The Early American Underpinnings in the making of an iconic dish. Moyer-Nocchi is researching societal conditions that would have impacted James Hemings, Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved head chef, in the areas he lived following his return from training in Paris. The talk will particularly highlight Philadelphia, where he would have been in contact with Hercules Posey, Washington's enslaved chef.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Indentured Servants, the White Poor, and American Political Development

April 21, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Bartholomew Sparrow's research project, The Unknown Founding: Indentured Servants, the White Poor, and American Political Development. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Sparrow is researching how the presence of unfree Europeans and their propertyless descendants systematically influenced American political development.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Revolution, War, and the Forging of a Vigorous Government

May 13, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Dillon L. Streifeneder's research project, Revolution, War, and the Forging of a Vigorous Government. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Streifeneder is continuing his research on day-to-day experiences of governance and efforts to develop institutional structures needed to wage war. 

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Brown Bag Lunch: Relating to the Republic

June 23, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow David Marsich's research project, Relating to the Republic: Representative-Constituent Relationships in the Early United States, 1794-1844. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Marsich is researching accounts about Congressmen in office and as candidates along with writings that suggest how people thought about representation more broadly.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Horatio Gates and the Pursuit of a Republican Revolution

June 30, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Kieran J. O'Keefe's research project, Horatio Gates and the Pursuit of a Republican Revolution. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, O'Keefe is working on his biography of Horatio Gate which aims to take a fresh look at Gate's life and contributions to American independence.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Determined to be American

July 28, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Cody E. Nager's research project, Determined to be American: Regulating Migration and Citizenship in the Early American Republic, 1783–1815. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Nager is conducting research on migration politics during the Washington Administration.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Negotiating the Endless Mountains

August 5, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Ryan P. Langton's research project, Negotiating the Endless Mountains: Networked Diplomacy along the Eighteenth-Century Trans-Appalachian Frontier. At the George Washington Presidential Library, Gordon is drawing upon the library's manuscript and map collections to chart the personal networks that shaped cross-cultural diplomacy around the Ohio Valley during and after the Seven Years' War.

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Brown Bag Lunch: Science and Commerce in Early America

August 27, 2025 — 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. George Washington Presidential Library

Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Laura Clerx's research project, Nature's Properties: Science and Commerce in Early America, 1780-1850. Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Clerx is researching the meeting of scientific knowledge and early republic economic realities in the papers of the 1785 Potomac Navigation Company founded by Washington.

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