Lectures & Conversations

Hill Center launched its new public affairs discussion series, At Issue, in April. The series will examine the many critical issues we are faced with today. Kennicott and Eisele will address the growing challenges confronting and impacting America’s cultural institutions, including museums, performing arts centers, libraries, arts funding, and public broadcasting. In a recent Post…

The 80-Year Struggle to Build the DC National Guard Armory   How the vacant land between East Capitol Street and Independence Avenue west of the Anacostia River became a center of civic and military activity is a history worth telling. Jack Jones, historic preservation specialist at the DC Historic Preservation Office, will do just that…

Dr. John Brooks is the former Chief Medical Officer at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of HIV Prevention. Dr. Anne Schuchat was Principal Deputy Director at the…

Hill Center launched its new public affairs discussion series, At Issue in April. The series examines the many critical issues we are faced with today. Since taking office, President Trump has tried to reframe the country’s past involving racism and discrimination by de-emphasizing that history or at times denying that it happened. As historian Marcia…

"As engaging as Sassoon renders the intricacies of business and religion, the book is at its best when the family’s supercharged ambitions take center stage....Rags-to-riches stories may all be the same, but it’s the way in which a fortune is lost that’s truly compelling. Sassoon’s detailed account of the decentralization of family power and the proliferation of descendants interested in spending but not…

Veteran journalist Bill Press sits down for an in-depth conversation with New York Times bestselling author, Lynne Olson Lynne Olson is a New York Times bestselling author of ten books of history, most of which focus on World War II. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has called her “our era’s foremost chronicler of World War…

On September 30th at 7.00 pm, two outstanding Smithsonian Museum curators will present and discuss their recent books and the key insights derived from archival research, field work, and material culture studies that increase our understanding of this quintessential American music and its global influence. Dwandalyn R. Reece will present Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the…

Hill Center launched its new public affairs discussion series At Issue in April. The series examines the many critical issues we are faced with today. The New York Times recently published an editorial board opinion titled, “Trump’s Politicized F.B.I. Has Made Americans Less Safe,” in which it argues, “Only 11 days after President Trump was…

“Personally driven, historically necessary, and politically salient.” —Kirkus Reviews Fatemeh Jamalpour will be in conversation with Holly Dagres, Senior Fellow The Washington Institute Fatemeh Jamalpour is a feminist journalist banned from working in Iran by the Ministry of Intelligence. Jamalpour has worked as a freelance reporter for outlets such as The Sunday Times, The Paris Review…

Heating, lighting, and plumbing provide comfort and convenience to the modern home. How did the historic row houses of Capitol Hill accommodate these modern interventions? On Monday, November 10, at 7 pm, during the Overbeck History Lecture at Hill Center, Old Naval Hospital, architectural historian and author Alison K. (Kim) Hoagland will highlight how people’s…

The Civil War marks the turn of DC’s firefighting efforts from volunteer firefighting brigades to a city-wide department of trained and paid firefighters. Amy Mauro, Esq., executive director of the DC Fire & Emergency Medical Services Foundation, will highlight decades of improvements and innovations within the “Nation’s Fire Department” at the Overbeck Capitol Hill history…

Veteran journalist Bill Press sits down for an in-depth conversation with New York Times chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker and The New Yorker staff writer, Susan Glasser, for a…

“Clifford Thompson has skillfully captured in words a distinct era of American history, the specific feel over time of two major cities (Washington and New York); an intimate glimpse of the complexity of race and masculinity; and the small details of family, love, ambition, fear, fatherhood, and aging that make up a life. It is…

Veteran journalist Bill Press sits down for an in-depth conversation with historian Rick Atkinson about his new book THE FATE OF THE DAY: The War for America: Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 Atkinson played key roles in Ken Burns' new documentary series, The American Revolution: An Intimate History,  serving as a principal advisor and on-camera…

Calling all Crossword, Spelling Bee, and Wordle Fans! If you are ever a little nosey and glance at the phone screen of the person sitting next to you on the train, or in a café, or in line at a store, there is a pretty good chance that you will see them playing Wordle, Spelling…

Hill Center launched its new public affairs discussion series, At Issue in 2025. The series examines the many critical issues we are faced with today. Dara Lind is a Senior…

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Search for Life Beyond Earth,” with Måns Holmberg, postdoctoral researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute and part of a team of astronomers looking for chemical traces of life on distant exoplanets. Are we alone in the universe? While many of us have pondered that question, astronomer Måns Holmberg of Baltimore’s Space…

Is Shakespeare relevant today? Do we really need a building dedicated to him and his times in the 21st century, when we are so heavily reliant on the virtual world? The Folger Shakespeare Library, a sleek expression of early 20th century neoclassicism, stands as one of the most interesting, privately held buildings on Capitol Hill.…

A history of Black poets in Washington, DC, reveals how they have reflected and transformed American cultural discourse The discussion will feature poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Folger Poetry Manager and eminent DC Poet, Karl Carter Washington, DC, has long been home to a dynamic and vibrant African American literary community, despite often being overshadowed…

Hill Center launched its new public affairs discussion series, At Issue in April. The series examines the many critical issues we are faced with today. Fact: voter fraud almost never…