America 250: Reflections on the Declaration of Independence

Please join us for a conversation between two leading public historians visiting us from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello! Andrew M. Davenport and Bill Barker will provide insights into the principal author of the Declaration of Independence during and after the Age of Revolution. Who was the man who wrote the United States into existence, and what do his accomplishments and contradictions reveal about his times and the nation we have inherited? How can the founding generation’s vision for a self-governing nation still inspire Americans today?

Andrew M. Davenport is Vice President for Research and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. He has published widely about U.S. history and culture, including in Lapham’s Quarterly, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Smithsonian Magazine. His scholarship has appeared or will appear soon in the American Historical Review, French Cultural Studies, and in edited volumes about American history and literature.

Bill Barker is widely recognized as the nation’s foremost interpreter of Thomas Jefferson. After portraying Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg for 26 years, Barker joined Monticello in 2019. He began interpreting Jefferson in 1984—fittingly, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Combining the tools of theater with rigorous historical scholarship, Barker’s approach explores Jefferson’s life and times, and how it relates to our world today.

Registration required. Register online or call 203-762-6334.