Dear all,
Here is our monthly newsletter of the AMERICA2026 program, the last of 2023!
We are deeply honored to welcome Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest in our consortium. One of only two homes Thomas Jefferson designed for his personal use, Poplar Forest (located near Lynchburg, Virginia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains) was the place where Jefferson “came to indulge in the life of the mind and renew his personal creativity.” While in residence on the plantation, Jefferson wrote his only book, Notes on the State of Virginia. At the peak of the plantation’s operation as a tobacco farm, Poplar Forest was home to 94 enslaved individuals.Through archaeology, we have learned a great deal about the daily lives of Poplar Forest’s enslaved community. Current and future efforts will focus on sharing more information about the complicated and intertwined relationships between Jefferson, his family and the enslaved community.
Designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior, and nearly lost to the threat of commercial development, Poplar Forest was rescued in 1984 by a group of local citizens who sought to preserve it for the cultural and educational benefit of current and future generations. The site opened to the public for the first time in 1986 in its pre-restoration state. Today, after 34 years of meticulous research, reconstruction and restoration, the neoclassical architecture of the octagonal house has been returned to Jefferson’s design. Poplar Forest has been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the nonprofit organization has received numerous awards and accolades honoring architectural and landscape restoration efforts as well as ongoing archaeological exploration, interpretation and educational programming. A recently adopted strategic plan (Fall 2022) outlines five goal pillars for the coming years, leading up to and through 2026. The full text can be found on their website.
Events of the month:
Conference: Empire and its Discontent, 1763-1773
Organized by The David Center for the American Revolution at the American
Philosophical Society and the Massachusetts Historical Society
Dates: December 1-2, 2023
Location: Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston MA
The conference website can be found here.
‘All Nature’s Face, is dug, pitch’d up & tore’: The Loyalist Environmental Imagination from Occupied New York City With Blake McGready
Organized by the David Center for the American Revolution Seminar
Date: December 6, 2023, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET (ONLINE)
Registration required. More information here.
Money in Vast Early America
WMQ-EMSI Workshop 2023
Convener: Christine Desan
Dates: December 8-9, 2023
Location: Huntington Library, San Marino, California
The program and further information can be found here.
Reminders and December Deadlines:
Doctoral Program „American History – History of the Americas“ (Class of Culture and History, Graduate School Language & Literature Munich, LMU Munich)
Application Deadline: December 15, 2023
Information about the program and application process can be found here.
CfP: Voices & Agencies: America and the Atlantic, 1600 – 1865 – Final Conference at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Organizers: Ilka Brasch and Elena Furlanetto
Dates: March 7-8, 2024
Submission Deadline: December 15, 2023
Submission Information and Call for Papers here.
Publications of interest:
History Now – The Journal
publication by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Their current Fall issue 2023 is dedicated to “The Role of Spain in the American Revolution”
Their previous issue Summer 2023 was dedicated to “The Influence of the Declaration of Independence on the Civil War and Reconstruction Era”
Account required for reading.
Other Events of Interest:
Warfare in Early America
Instructor: Timothy Shannon, Gettysburg College
Self-Paced Course via The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
More information on pricing and access can be found here.
Cyphering Books in the Archive
with Lukas Etter
Organized by the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies
Date: Dec 5, 2023, 4:15-5.45pm
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany.
More information can be found here.
Looking ahead:
Revelation and the American Revolution: Understanding and Justifying War
with Britain through Personal Prophecy and Biblical Exegesis
With Jennifer Egloff
Organized by the David Center for the American Revolution Seminar
Date: January 24, 2024, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET (ONLINE)
Registration required. More information here.
Attention: There seems to be a typo on the website – the event is scheduled for January 2024 (not 2023).
American Revolution International: Roundtable, Western History Conference / Southern Historical Association joint annual Meeting.
Date: Oct. 24-27, 2024, Kansas City, MO.
Registration required. More information here.
With the 250th anniversary fast approaching, we invite proposals for a roundtable session (or maybe two) on INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. We are especially interested in work on the West or South during the Revolutionary era (c. 1763-1815) that centers Indigenous polities, enslaved people, free people of African descent, inter-imperial competition, migration, international trade, the circulation of ideas, discourse, and ideology, or that otherwise opens up new perspectives on the international aspects of the era. We welcome submissions by scholars at all career stages. If interested, please send a 1-page CV and 1- paragraph summary of your proposed presentation to delay@berkeley.edu by Nov.25, 2023.
