Arlington Historical Society

Marquis de Lafayette Returns to Arlington: 200th Commemoration
2025-01-09 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Celebrate the bicentennial of the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Arlington House and the new Capital City area in 1825 with Elizabeth Reese, author of “Marquis de Lafayette Returns: A Tour of America’s National Capitol Region.”
Against the backdrop of a tumultuous election, a beloved hero of the American Revolution returned to America for the first time in forty years. From August 1824 to September 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette traveled throughout the United States, welcomed by thousands of admirers at each stop along the way. Although the tour brought him to each state in the Union, the majority of his time was spent in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.
Elizabeth Reese is a public historian whose work is focused on the American Revolution and Early Republic. In addition to receiving the 2015 Scott Hartwig Public History Fellowship at the Civil War Institute, Reese has spent over a decade as an interpreter at federal historic sites, developing programs on civil rights, women’s history, and Founding America. She has been a speaker at a variety of historic institutions including the White House Historical Association, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the American Revolution Institute. Reese is the Associate Manager of Marketing at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House. She is also the chair of The American Friends of Lafayette Bicentennial Committee for Washington, D.C. She is currently working towards a Master of Arts in American History from Gettysburg College where her research is focused on the Early American Republic, especially as it pertains to relationships between men and women & public memory.
Attend via Zoom or In-Person
PREREGISTER FOR ZOOM ACCESS. You can attend this event on Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University Main Campus. If you want to attend this event virtually, please click HERE to register. You can also cut and paste this link https://forms.gle/ubRNRd2kuiaW3VwG6 into your own browser and complete it there. Please register by Wednesday, January 8. Zoom access information will be sent to you on the morning of the event on Thursday, January 9.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS and FREE PARKING: Attendees planning to attend the event in-person should enter the Marymount University campus at the library gate on N. 26th Street. From Glebe Road going north, take a right onto 26th Street. Pass the intersection with Yorktown Road and then enter the campus through the next gate on your left. The library is to your left as you enter the campus. Free garage parking is just past the library at the bottom of the small incline. (Handicapped parking is immediately to your right as you enter through the gate onto campus.)

If the university has lowered the garage gates, push the button and let them know you’re here for an Arlington Historical Society event in the library. To leave, push the button and they’ll raise the gate.

This event is one of the monthly series of free public programs sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society. This event is hosted courtesy of the Marymount University politics program’s American Heritage Initiative. For more information, please email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org.
Ms. Reese’s book will be on sale at this event (cash, check or, charge)

George Washington's Forest Guided History Walk: 250th Commemoration
2024-12-14 12:30 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Ball-Sellers House, 5620 3rd Street, South, Arlington VA 22204, VA, 22312, United States
Walk in the footsteps of George Washington on a guided walking tour to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Washington’s purchase of 1168 acres of land in what is now Arlington. After the Revolutionary War, Washington returned home and surveyed his property. You’ll visit a survey marker used by George Washington, an 18th Century home with connections to Washington, an historic spring likely visited by Washington, the site of a mill built by Washington’s step-grandson, and more.
This guided walk is usually only offered in the spring but this year we’re celebrating the 250th Anniversary of George Washington’s purchase of land in what became Arlington County.
This event begins at the Ball-Sellers Ho0use which will be specially open just for walkers. Because of the colder weather, we are starting at 12:30 pm and NOT the usual 1:30. Dress for the weather.

Sojourner Truth Comes Alive
2024-12-12 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Reinsch Library Auditorium, Marymount University, 2807 North Glebe Road, Arlington
Sojourner Truth Comes Alive with Karen Bostic.
The Arlington Historical Society is proud to partner with the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington to present Karen Bostic interpreting Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth, formerly enslaved, was a renowned activist and abolitionist. In 1851, in Akron, Ohio, she delivered what is now recognized as one of the most famous abolitionist and women’s rights speeches in American history. She continued to speak out during the Civil War.
Sojourner Truth lived in Freedman’s Village which was established after the Civil War on what had been the Arlington plantation grounds. She helped newly free residents find employment, advised them on their rights, taught women domestic skills, and served as a spiritual mentor for many. Her lessons resonate today. Ms. Bostic will reenact or historically interpret Sojourner Truth. Afterwards, Wakefield High School educator, Antoinette Waters, will answer your questions and give us details about Sojourner Truth’s life and impact in history and today.
Antoinette Waters (photo at right) teaches advanced placement (AP) US history and AP African American studies at Wakefield High School. Originally from Bowie, Maryland, she has a Bachelors degree in education from Temple University and a Masters in Education from George Mason University. She has taught in DC and Alexandria public schools.
Attend via Zoom or In-Person
PREREGISTER FOR ZOOM ACCESS. You can attend this event on Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University Main Campus. If you want to attend this event virtually, please click HERE to register. Please register by Wednesday, December 11. Zoom access information will be sent to you on the morning of the event on Thursday, December 12.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS and FREE PARKING: Attendees planning to attend the event in-person should enter the Marymount University campus at the library gate on N. 26th Street. From Glebe Road going north, take a right onto 26th Street. Pass the intersection with Yorktown Road and then enter the campus through the next gate on your left. The library is to your left as you enter the campus. Free garage parking is just past the library at the bottom of the small incline. (Handicapped parking is immediately to your right as you enter through the gate onto campus.)

If the university has lowered the garage gates, push the button and let them know you’re here for an Arlington Historical Society event in the library. To leave, push the button and they’ll raise the gate.

This event is one of the monthly series of free public programs sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society. This event is hosted courtesy of the Marymount University politics program’s American Heritage Initiative. For more information, please email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org.

Columbia Pike Documentary Project: The Road We're On
2024-11-14 19:00 - 20:30 UTC | Reinsch Library Auditorium, Marymount University, 2807 North Glebe Road, Arlington
The Columbia Pike Documentary Project (CPDP) is a multidisciplinary history of Columbia Pike, one of America’s oldest roads and most ethnically diverse communities. Team members Paula Endo, Lloyd Wolf, Mimi Xang Ho, Duy Tran, Aleksandra Lagkueva, Lara Ajami, Sushmita Mazumdar, and Moises Gomez have been using photography and oral history to document life along the Pike. The project is sponsored by the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization.
The record CPDP has created of this rich melting pot has been undertaken in a thorough, insightful, and aesthetically powerful way. Its meaning to the community has continued to grow as this section of Arlington County gentrifies and redevelops. Older established ways of life are still in place, alongside many new citizens from every continent. Buildings and businesses from earlier eras coexist with new development in relative harmony, much as the people do.
Lloyd Wolf will speak about this unique project in Arlington, which reflects a “united nations” of cultures here in our county. A seasoned freelance photographer with a proven record of success in the arts and education, Mr. Wolf shoots documentary, editorial, and commercial photography. He has worked with many clients, including National Geographic Explorer, the Smithsonian, Vogue, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and The Washington Post Magazine. He has worked on documentary projects regarding drug rehabilitation in prisons, the Holocaust, traditional African American forms of worship, Jewish roots in Europe and Israel, and Ethiopian refugees.
Mr. Wolf has taught at Northern Virginia Community College, George Mason University, Arlington Public Schools, and the Alternative Learning Center at American University. He is a member of the Society for Photographic Education and the US House and Senate Press Photographer’s Gallery. Mr. Wolf earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Trinity College in 1974 and a Master of Arts in photography from Goddard College in 1977. (Photo courtesy Kristian Whipple, 2017)
CPDP books will be on sale at this event, a two for one sale! Books bought at the event can be paid for by cash or check. See the CPDP website for books where you can pre-order or buy online: https://columbiapikefarmersmarket.org/vendor/cpdp?

Attend via Zoom or In-Person
PREREGISTER FOR ZOOM ACCESS. You can attend this event on Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University Main Campus. If you want to attend this event virtually, please click HERE to register. You can cut and paste this link into your browser: https://forms.gle/JV8YxH5DDopc1iVM7 . Please register by Wednesday, November 13: Zoom access information will be sent to you on the morning of the event on Thursday, November 14.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS and FREE PARKING: Attendees planning to attend the event in-person should enter the Marymount University campus at the library gate on N. 26th Street. From Glebe Road going north, take a right onto 26th Street. Pass the intersection with Yorktown Road and then enter the campus through the next gate on your left. The library is to your left as you enter the campus. Free garage parking is just past the library at the bottom of the small incline. (Handicapped parking is immediately to your right as you enter the campus.)
If the university has lowered the garage gates, push the button and let them know you’re here for an Arlington Historical Society event in the library. To leave, push the button and they’ll raise the gate.
This event is one of the monthly series of free public programs sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society. This event is hosted courtesy of the Marymount University politics program’s American Heritage Initiative. For more information, please email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org

Routes of Resilience Walk
2024-10-26 14:00 - 16:00 UTC | Sheraton Pentagon City, 900 South Orme Street, Arlington, VA, 22204, United States
Routes of Resilience: From Enslavement to Freedom Along the Pike
Explore the journey from enslavement to freedom along The Pike in this eye-opening event!
Join The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, The Arlington Historical Society, and WalkArlington as we learn about the lives of free and enslaved Black people in 19th-century Arlington.
In this afternoon walk near Columbia Pike, Craig Syphax, board member and former president of The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, and Jessica Kaplan, board member of the Arlington Historical Society, will share the stories of free and enslaved Black people who were part of this neighborhood in the 19th century. As we pass by places where they once lived and worked, we’ll learn about their lives, their struggles, and their great resilience, courage, and strength in the face of adversity.
In November, several sites on the Routes of Resilience walk will be dedicated with bronze markers emblazoned with the names of the people we will learn about. The markers will be placed as part of the Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington project, an effort to commemorate the lives of the County’s enslaved population. The first markers in this project were dedicated at the oldest house in Arlington, the Ball-Sellers House, in fall 2023.
Need To Know
We’ll meet on the sidewalk in front of the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel before heading toward Freedman’s Village Bridge. Our group will have a sandwich board sign with the name of the walk. Please register here: ( https://www.eventbrite.com/e/routes-of-resilience-from-enslavement-to-freedom-along-the-pike-tickets-1013878667387?aff=ebdssbdestsearch )
After the walk, we’ll head down The Pike to The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington for a reception and an opportunity to view the museum’s exhibits.
Our walks are generally rain or shine. In the event of severely inclement weather, the rain date for this walk will be Saturday, November 9.

Celebration of Lafayette's Bicentennial Visit
2024-10-14 10:00 - 15:00 UTC | Arlington House, Arlington National Cemetery - Arlington, Arlington
Celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Marquis de LaFayette’s Farewell Visit to America

10 – 3 pm: See displays and artifacts of Lafayette and his accomplishments, including his bust and portrait in Arlington House.
10 – 3 pm: Talk with Lafayette, interpreted by American History Theatre’s Ben Goldman.
2: 00 pm: Keynote Speaker: Elizabeth Reese, author of “Marquis de Lafayette Returns: A Tour of America’s National Capitol Region” will talk about Lafayette the man and his importance in American history.

During the American Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette volunteered from France to help America win its independence from England. He served as an aide to George Washington and was later promoted to general. In 1824 he began a 13-month tour of the 24 United States. At Arlington House, George Washington Parke Custis hosted the Marquis who was the last remaining Revolutionary War general. Lafayette advocated for human rights for the enslaved, for religious freedom, and for equality for women. Arlington House is located on the crest of Arlington National Cemetery and can be accessed from the ANC Visitors Center.
For additional details see: https://arlingtonhouse.org/event-5767261
Event Sponsors, Host, and Partners:

Arlington House Foundation
The American Friends of Lafayette
National Park Service
Arlington Historical Society
Arlington County VA250

United States Colored Troops at Camp Casey, 1863-1865
2024-10-10 19:00 - 20:30 UTC | Reinsch Library Auditorium, Marymount University, 2807 North Glebe Road, Arlington
During the Civil War Camp Casey on Arlington Heights saw the organization of the Second and Twenty-Third United States Colored Troops – the only regiments raised in Arlington County during the conflict. Although the camp and the regiments went unmentioned in the history of Arlington published during the US bicentennial, they played an important role in the USCT’s decisive contribution to the nation’s victory over the rebel states.
This presentation will survey the full history of Camp Casey, from the enlistment of the two regiments, through the Camp’s role as a “Recruiting Rendezvous” for replacements to USCT units on the Richmond-Petersburg front, to the service of its garrison battalion in the campaign that ended at Appomattox. By the time the shooting stopped Camp Casey had, in little less than two years, put some 6,000 soldiers into the ranks of the US Army, an accomplishment long overlooked but not to be forgotten. (Photo: Sgt. Nimrod Burk, 23rd USCT)
Our speaker, Michael Schaffner is reenactor in Company B, 54th Massachusetts (the “Glory” regiment). He was the keynote speaker at the rededication of Arlington’s Fort Ethan Allen in 2014, has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables, the Museum of Civil War Medicine, and the Arlington Sesquicentennial Committee commemorating the Civil War and he has conducted battlefield tours for military personnel from the Embassy of Canada. In 2020, he participated in a panel discussion at an AHS event with fellow reenactors in the 54th Massachusetts, Edward W. Gannt and Ben Hawley. He has also spoken to an AHS audience about the rigors of Civil War red tape and the Civil War Convalescent Camp in what is now Arlington. He is currently researching a book on the USCT and Camp Casey.
Attend via Zoom or In-Person
PREREGISTER FOR ZOOM ACCESS. You can attend this event on Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University Main Campus. If you want to attend this event virtually, please click HERE to register. You can cut and paste this link into your browser: https://forms.gle/1yGqqHcsgBBXe3PM7 . Please register by Wednesday, October 9: Zoom access information will be sent to you on the morning of the event on Thursday, October 10.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS and FREE PARKING: Attendees planning to attend the event in-person should enter the Marymount University campus at the library gate on N. 26th Street. From Glebe Road going north, take a right onto 26th Street. Pass the intersection with Yorktown Road and then enter the campus through the next gate on your left. The library is to your left as you enter the campus. Free garage parking is just past the library at the bottom of the small incline. (Handicapped parking is immediately to your right as you enter the campus.)

If the university has lowered the garage gates, push the button and let them know you’re here for an Arlington Historical Society event in the library. To leave, push the button and they’ll raise the gate.

This event is one of the monthly series of free public programs sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society. This event is hosted courtesy of the Marymount University politics program’s American Heritage Initiative. For more information, please email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org
