Today’s Historic America Journal entry is the first of a two-part series on presidential love stories in preparation for our limited-run Presidential Sweethearts Tour. If these true tales capture your imagination, you’re in luck! A ticket for our Presidential Sweethearts Tour is the perfect Valentine's Day gift for the history nerd in your life. More information about the tour can be found on our website or our Eventbrite page. This week, we journey back in time to visit Dolley & James Madison.

An Event this Weekend You Should Know About!

Did you know that one of Historic America’s own tour guides - Andrew Davenport - is a Hemings family descendant? YES … that Hemings family. Pretty cool huh? He’ll be moderating a fascinating event this weekend and he’s sent us a dispatch with all the info. What’s it all about Andrew?

Aaron KillianFebruary 19, 2021monticello, Sally Hemings, Andrew davenport, Hemings family, descendants, historic america, Thomas JeffersonComment

Thomas Jefferson: Defining America, Chapter III

I'm putting the finishing touches on the third chapter of Thomas Jefferson: Defining America. Here's a sneak peak at chapter three, which is tentatively entitled, Independence.

Thomas Jefferson: Defining America, Chapter II

The work continues on my recently announced biography of Thomas Jefferson. Today I'd like to share with you a portion of Thomas Jefferson: Defining America, Chapter II...

Book Review: Thomas Jefferson, The Art of Power

Ever since his death on July 4th, 1826 (50 years to the day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, I might add), subsequent generations of Americans have appropriated the life and legacy of Thomas Jefferson in order to advance agendas and justify arguments.

Book Review: The Hemingses of Monticello

Heavy handed and overly long, Annette Gordon Reed's Pulitzer Prize winning, The Hemingses of Monticello, is a chore to read - which is probably why it won the Pulitzer Prize in the first place.

Aaron KillianOctober 15, 2014Annette Gordon Reed, Hemingses of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, Sally HemingsComment

Book Review: Undaunted Courage

I don’t know how many of you can relate, but there’s nothing I enjoy more than absently browsing around a bookstore. If you can sympathize, surely you’ve noticed that every bookstore in America seems to have a copy of Stephen Ambrose’s, Undaunted Courage nestled somewhere amongst the stacks. I don’t think I’ve even been in the history section of a Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million and not seen it (along with Jared Diamond’s, Guns, Germs & Steel and everything David McCullough ever wrote).

Aaron KillianOctober 8, 2014Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, Sacagawea, Lewis & Clark expeditionComment

Thomas Jefferson: Defining America

I’ve embarked on a new e-book project inspired by my ongoing work at the Jefferson Hotel. Thomas Jefferson: Defining America, will be a short biography of T-Jeff (new nickname I just came up with) and it should be out sometime towards the end of winter, 2015.

Aaron KillianOctober 6, 2014Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson Hotel, Historic America, Dabney Carr, Defining America, BiographyComment

Touring at the Jefferson Hotel

On Saturday mornings I work at the Jefferson Hotel off of 16th Street in Washington, DC serving as the hotel historian. Throughout the hotel are objects, artifacts and design elements related to the life & legacy of Thomas Jefferson, and it’s my privilege to talk about these fascinations with hotel guests...It’s a great gig.

Aaron KillianOctober 1, 2014Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson Hotel, founding fathers, 16th Street, Washington DC, luxury hotel, Historic AmericaComment

Book Review: Common Sense

The genius of Common Sense was that it gave voice to the collective anger and frustration felt by countless American patriots and it succeeded in spinning an already angry populace even further into the realm of tear-ass rebelliousness. In order to get into the revolutionary spirit, I read it for the first time while on my recent trip to Yorktown, Virginia.