McNeil Center for Early American Studies

09/09/2026

Tonight! McNeil Center Director Emma Hart will be one of the featured historians at The Library Company of Philadelphia's "Historians in Conversation about Philadelphia's Radical Revolution." The roundtable discussion will also feature Martha King, Aaron Sullivan, and the LCP's Director-Designate Jessica Choppin Roney. Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, 5:30pm, reception to follow. Register here: https://librarycompany.org/calendar-2/

09/08/2026

Registration is open!

Save the date! On October 2 and 3, join us for a FREE symposium, “Experiencing Independence: Eyewitness Accounts of the American Revolution.”

Firsthand accounts of the American Revolution provide historians, museums, and historic sites with critical details for understanding what it was like to experience independence. To mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Historic Trappe, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and Ursinus College are partnering to convene a symposium, “Experiencing Independence: Eyewitness Accounts of the American Revolution.”

This free symposium will explore the diaries, journals, letters, and material culture made or used by people in the mid-Atlantic region from 1760–1790. Panels will explore family dynamics in the midst of political upheaval, wartime experiences of soldiers and civilians, accounts from different religious perspectives, and new approaches to non-English sources on the American Revolution.

Location: Ursinus College, 601 E Main St, Collegeville, PA 19426

Cost: Free

For more information and to register, visit historictrappe.org/experiencing-independence

09/03/2026

Amelia Reaume, a history major at Ursinus College, was one of four students selected for our C. Dallett Hemphill Summer Internship program. We spoke with her about her experience as an Educational Programming Intern at Historic Trappe, an organization focused on preserving and sharing historic places, landscapes, and heritage of southeastern Pennsylvania. Read more at https://bit.ly/4gB1jDg

08/27/2026

Join us at the McNeil Center on Thursday, September 3 at 3:30pm for a seminar by Douglas L. Winiarski of the University of Richmond. Dr. Winiarski will present “Shakers and the Shawnee Prophet: Making & Breaking Religious Communities on the Early American Frontier.” Reception following. To learn more and read the pre-circulated paper, register here: https://bit.ly/4zGa06t

08/24/2026

We are thrilled to announce that Drs. Andrew Shankman, Carol Soltis, and Derrick Spires will present the third annual Benjamin Franklin Distinguished Lectures, “American Revolutions Reconsidered, 1776–2026," on October 26, 27, and 29, 2026, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. To learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4xSlmCK

08/17/2026

Pearle Bromley, a history major at Bryn Mawr College, was one of four students selected for the McNeil Center's C. Dallett Hemphill Internship Program this summer. In her internship at the Dialogue Institute at Temple University, she helped research and develop a training curriculum for guides and provided support for the Institute’s Religious Freedom Trails. Read more at https://bit.ly/4cuETRt

08/12/2026

This summer, the McNeil Center was thrilled to welcome four scholars to our inaugural Daniel K. Richter Writing Retreat. Each participant was provided with a $4,000 stipend, office space, writing time, library resources, and one-on-one mentorship to help revise their work for publication (left to right: Blake Grindon, Chloe Northrop, Brooke Mai, and Amy Speckart). https://bit.ly/4xwXrsh

08/10/2026

The McNeil Center was happy to support Gloria Schulz's internship at the Morven Museum & Garden, as well as other students this summer through the C. Dallett Hemphill Internship program.

07/30/2026

Deadline Approaching!

CFP for "Empires in Early American History"
Submission deadline: September 1, 2026
Conference: April 29–May 1, 2027
Location: Philadelphia and Bethlehem, PA

Sponsors: The Lawrence Henry Gipson Institute for Eighteenth-Century Studies and The McNeil Center for Early American Studies. https://bit.ly/4fDCxAt

07/28/2026

Discover a fresh perspective on Pennsylvania's past with the newly released Native Americans and Pennsylvania by Daniel K. Richter.

This thoroughly revised edition brings together the latest interdisciplinary scholarship to center Indigenous voices, histories, and landscapes. Spanning thousands of years before the founding of Pennsylvania through the present day, Richter explores how the ancestors of the Lenape, Conestoga, and Haudenosaunee shaped the region long before European settlement, and how their enduring legacies continue to influence conversations about identity, justice, and history today.

Available now! https://tupress.temple.edu/books/native-americans-and-pennsylvania