Please join us for a fascinating evening with author and historian Kate Haulman, whose work brings fresh perspective to Mary Ball Washington’s complex legacy. Haulman’s book, The Mother of Washington in Nineteenth Century America explores how Americans have understood, debated and reshaped Mary Washington’s reputation over time. Drawing on nineteenth-century biographies, popular culture, and historical memory, Haulman reveals how Mary Washington became a mirror for broader ideas about women’s roles, patriotism, and family in the young nation. Copies of the book are available at the Mary Washington House museum store.

About the Speaker: Kate Haulman is an associate professor of history at American University. She is the author of the prize-winning "The Politics of Fashion in Eighteenth-Century America" and co-editor of "Making Women’s Histories: Beyond National Perspectives." An active public historian, she has worked on museum exhibitions including at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

This free program is sponsored by the Fredericksburg Area Museum, the University of Mary Washington and Washington Heritage Museums.