All upcoming American History programs

Beethoven never made it to the United States, but hundreds of important musicians and composers did. From early touring megastars like Adelina Patti and Paderewski to successful later refugee émigrés such as Rachmaninoff and Kurt Weill, America has long welcomed great artists. In a four-session series filled with musical excerpts, speaker and concert pianist Rachel Franklin explores the siren call of America to musicians.

In October 1964, a campaign train dubbed the Lady Bird Special left Washington, D.C., bound for New Orleans. Lady Bird Johnson’s mission: to aid her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, in territory roiling with animosity after his recent signing of the Civil Rights Act. Her train made 47 stops in eight states over four days. Historian Shannon McKenna Schmidt chronicles that journey into the Southern politics of the day.

Author Megan Kate Nelson traces Yellowstone’s transformation from unexplored wilderness to national icon. In 1871, geologist-explorer Ferdinand Hayden led a Smithsonian-backed expedition to confirm reports of Yellowstone’s natural wonders. His team’s findings helped persuade Congress to protect the land, leading to the 1872 Yellowstone Act. Nelson draws from her book Saving Yellowstone to explore the competing interests of figures like Sitting Bull and railroad magnate Jay Cooke, revealing the complex forces behind America’s first national park.

Discover the deep-rooted and multifaceted history of Jewish life in the nation’s capital during a tour of key landmarks and institutions led by Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours. Highlights of the day include visits to the Capital Jewish Museum; a guided walking tour of the 7th Street corridor, once a bustling center of Jewish-owned businesses; the historic Sixth & I Synagogue, one of the city’s oldest Jewish houses of worship; Arena Stage; and the Museum of American Jewish Military. And enjoy a stop for lunch at a classic Jewish deli.

Montgomery C. Meigs was one of the most influential yet underrated figures of 19th-century America, observes Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours. Renowned for energy, precision, and prickly determination, his legacy is stamped across the nation’s capital. As Quartermaster General of the Union Army, he supplied and equipped more than two million troops. He proposed transforming the Lee family estate at Arlington into a burial ground. Meigs oversaw the Capitol’s cast-iron dome, Washington’s aqueduct, and the Pension Office, later choosing his epitaph: “Soldier, Engineer, Architect, Scientist, Patriot.”

The American War of Independence freed the 13 British colonies in North America from Crown rule and set the stage for the United States’ bold experiment in self-government. Drawing on primary sources, historian Christopher Hamner traces the war from its roots in the crises of the 1770s through the opening campaigns of the conflict, culminating in the American victories at Trenton and Princeton and an examination of British strategy in a springtime series. This session focuses on pre-American Revolution events from the Boston Massacre in 1770 to the battle at Bunker Hill in June 1775.

The Massachusetts 54th Regiment, one of the first African American units in the Civil War, fought under Col. Robert Gould Shaw, a white officer who shared their commitment to freedom. They famously led the July 1863 assault on Fort Wagner, where nearly half, including Shaw, were killed. Paul Glenshaw examines how Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial, unveiled in 1897 on Boston Common, honored their sacrifice with individualized portraits of the soldiers. At its dedication, the memorial reflected a growing recognition of Black soldiers’ valor and the war’s legacy of emancipation. (World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1/2 credit)

Miami Beach boasts the world’s largest concentration of Art Deco architecture—a pastel landscape of curves, geometry, and seaside style. Urban historian Bill Keene examines Art Deco as a nationwide phenomenon and traces the creation, decline, and revival of the city’s distinctive quarter—designated a U.S. historic district in 1979—and the unique brand of “Tropical Deco” that emerged and thrived there. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

In the mid-20th century, three trailblazing women journalists bore witness to the great changes happening and transformed readers’ understanding of the world. Martha Gellhorn stowed away in the bathroom of a Red Cross hospital ship to report from Omaha Beach on D-Day. Emily “Mickey” Hahn filed stories from Japanese-occupied Shanghai that transported American readers into the wartime life of a Chinese family. Rebecca West interviewed the sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s would-be assassin in 1930s Yugoslavia and then covered the Nuremberg trials. Journalist Julia Cooke shows how these three women not only found stories that others overlooked but also pioneered new ways of telling them.