All upcoming American History programs

In May 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan and his army were on Richmond’s outskirts. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was assigned the daunting task of stopping a Union juggernaut capable of ending the Civil War. Thus, the stage was set for what became known as the Seven Days Battles. Led by Civil War tour guide Marc Thompson, this tour travels to five of these battlefields plus other significant related locations.

For roughly a decade beginning in the late 1940s, NBC and CBS offered viewers live original dramas. These anthology programs, such as “Kraft Television Theatre” and “Ford Television Theatre,” launched the careers of directors like Arthur Penn and John Frankenheimer, actors like Paul Newman and James Dean, and playwrights like Paddy Chayefsky and Rod Serling. Media historian Brian Rose looks at the forces that made this golden age such an intriguing chapter in TV history.

June 6, 2024, will mark the 80th anniversary of the greatest amphibious operation in history: D-Day. Kevin Weddle, professor emeritus of military theory and strategy at the U.S. Army War College, traces the development, execution, and aftermath of the cross-channel invasion that signaled the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.

Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of streaming services and social media. Drawing from her new biography of Walters, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief of USA Today, examines the woman behind the legacy—one whose personal demons fueled an ambition that broke all the rules and finally gave women a permanent place on the air.

A day-long visit to the Brandywine Museum of Art led by art historian Bonita Billman brings the landscape of Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley to life and offers an opportunity to explore a trio of special exhibitions, featuring works by Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, and Karl J. Kuerner—plus the Andrew Wyeth house and studio and Kuerner Farm (open to public tours for only a few days of the year). (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

June 6, 2024, will mark the 80th anniversary of the greatest amphibious operation in history: D-Day. Kevin Weddle, professor emeritus of military theory and strategy at the U.S. Army War College, traces the development, execution, and aftermath of the cross-channel invasion that signaled the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.

In the decades before the Civil War a clandestine network of human traffickers and slave traders stole away thousands of free African Americans from the northern states to sell them into slavery in the Deep South. Historian Richard Bell examines the prevalence of this heinous practice and considers the dramatic impact these kidnappings had on American history by accelerating the spread of slavery into new corners of the country, radicalizing Black communities across the free states, and focusing the public’s attention for the first time on the suffering of Black families forcibly separated by slavery.

Dubbed “The Queen of the Washington Suburbs” in 1903, Cleveland Park is one of the District’s most beautiful and architecturally eclectic neighborhoods. With a rich history, the neighborhood boasts fanciful Victorian mansions, gorgeous gardens, and the National Cathedral, the second-largest in the United States. Carolyn Muraskin leads a visit to the National Cathedral’s grounds and explores Cleveland Park highlights including the site of President Grover Cleveland’s summer home, Red Top, and the McLean Gardens apartment complex, built on the grounds of the estate of an owner of the Hope Diamond.

In 1890 more than 2,000 acres winding through Northwest Washington were set aside as a refuge for wildlife and an escape for District residents designed by the Olmstead Brothers: Rock Creek Park. Carolyn Muraskin surveys familiar parts of the landscape, including the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, as well as lesser-known landmarks, memorials, ruins, and other remnants of Rock Creek’s past.

Dubbed “The Queen of the Washington Suburbs” in 1903, Cleveland Park is one of the District’s most beautiful and architecturally eclectic neighborhoods. With a rich history, the neighborhood boasts fanciful Victorian mansions, gorgeous gardens, and the National Cathedral, the second-largest in the United States. Carolyn Muraskin leads a visit to the National Cathedral’s grounds and explores Cleveland Park highlights including the site of President Grover Cleveland’s summer home, Red Top, and the McLean Gardens apartment complex, built on the grounds of the estate of an owner of the Hope Diamond.