McNeil Center for Early American Studies

10/19/2026

Programming for the 250th continues at the Museum of the American Revolution tomorrow evening.

We’re just one week away from the kickoff to the 2026-2027 season of our Read the Revolution Speaker Series! 📚

Join us onsite or online Tuesday, Oct. 20, as Dr. Adam Jortner presents a lecture and discussion on American religious freedom as defined and forged by Jewish faith leaders and communities during the Revolutionary era inspired by his most recent book, “A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and The Birth of Religious Freedom.” The discussion will highlight ties to the Museum’s current special exhibition, “The Declaration’s Journey,” including the story of Jonas Phillips, a Philadelphia Jewish merchant who attempted to send a Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence and letter written in Yiddish to his relative and business partner in Amsterdam. However, both were intercepted by the British and are back in Philadelphia for the first time since 1776, on view in the Museum’s special exhibition. His portrait is on loan from the American Jewish Historical Society.

Register for onsite or virtual tickets: https://bit.ly/3Vza0pA

10/08/2026

Gloria Schulz, a master’s student and research assistant with the History Department at Rowan University, was one of four students selected as an intern this summer as part of our C. Dallett Hemphill Summer Internship program. We spoke with her about her internship with , the site of New Jersey’s first governor’s mansion. Read our interview with Gloria: https://bit.ly/4AQE0xn

10/05/2026

Join us at the McNeil Center on Thursday, October 8 at 3:30pm for a seminar by John Wood Sweet of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Sweet will present “‘This Hollow Place’: Venture Smith’s Middle Passage.” Reception following. To learn more and read the pre-circulated paper, register here: https://bit.ly/mceas-sweet

10/02/2026

Meet one of this year’s dissertation fellows: T. Wyatt Reynolds is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. His dissertation, "We Are Forever: Indigenous Intellectual Warfare and the Coalition that Fought to Remain," examines how a multiracial coalition mobilized against Indian Removal during the late 1820s and early 1830s. Read Wyatt’s profile here: https://bit.ly/mceas-reynolds

09/29/2026

Liz Ellis, co-editor of our Early American Studies book series with Penn Press, and a former McNeil Center Postdoctoral Fellow, has been awarded a 2026 MacArthur Fellowship. Congratulations, Liz Ellis, on this prestigious award!

09/24/2026

Join us at the McNeil Center on Thursday, October 1 at 3:30pm for a seminar by Jane Landers of Vanderbilt University. Dr. Landers will present “Polydore, an Atlantic Creole on Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage.” Reception following. To learn more and read the pre-circulated paper, register here: https://bit.ly/oct1seminar

09/21/2026

EAS: Miscellany was saddened to learn of the death of Susan E. Klepp, a historian of early American women and an active member of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. We offer this collection of tributes in her honor: https://tinyurl.com/3uksu5nh

09/15/2026

Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities: The McNeil Center for Early American Studies will appoint one Barra Postdoctoral Fellow and one Barra Sabbatical Fellow for terms beginning in 2027. Applications are welcome from scholars whose work focuses on any aspect of the histories and cultures of North America in the Atlantic world before 1850. Barra Postdoctoral Fellowship applications are due November 1, 2026. Barra Sabbatical Fellowship applications are due December 7, 2026. Learn more and apply here: https://bit.ly/4xvRz2j

09/11/2026

A handy primer for the best and most searching history, biography and current events you’ll read this season.

09/09/2026

Tonight! McNeil Center Director Emma Hart will be one of the featured historians at The Library Company of Philadelphia's "Historians in Conversation about Philadelphia's Radical Revolution." The roundtable discussion will also feature Martha King, Aaron Sullivan, and the LCP's Director-Designate Jessica Choppin Roney. Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, 5:30pm, reception to follow. Register here: https://librarycompany.org/calendar-2/