The National Archives Hosts Special Public Programs in March
Press Release · Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Washington, DC

The National Archives presents a series of daytime public programs in March. These programs are free and open to the public and will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, and streamed live on the National Archives YouTube, where noted. Book signings will follow each book talk. Attendees should use the Special Events entrance on Constitution Avenue at 7th Street, NW. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station.

BOOK TALK: Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
Friday, March 11, at noon, William G. McGowan Theater and YouTube
James Madison’s Notes on the 1787 Constitutional Convention has acquired nearly unquestioned authority as the description of the Constitution’s creation. But by drawing on digital technologies and traditional textual analysis, Mary Sarah Bilder reveals that Madison revised the Notes to a far greater extent than previously recognized. Bilder offers readers a biography of a document that, over two centuries, developed a life and character all its own.

Related new exhibit opens March 11: Amending America
Only 27 times—out of more than 11,000 proposals—have Americans reached consensus to amend the Constitution. This new exhibit reveals the stories behind why some proposed amendments successfully became part of the Constitution, while others failed to gain enough support.
Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery, March 11, 2016–September 4, 2017.

BOOK TALK: Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I
Tuesday, March 22, at noon, William G. McGowan Theater and YouTube
The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne is the deadliest clash in American history: more than a million untested American soldiers went up against a better-trained and experienced German army, resulting in more than 26,000 deaths and leaving nearly 100,000 wounded. Yet in forty-seven days of intense combat, these Americans forced the Germans to surrender, bringing the First World War to an end. Historian Mitchell Yockelson tells how General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing’s exemplary leadership led to the unlikeliest of victories.

FILM: From the Vaults: The National Park Service on Film
Friday, March 25, at noon
In the 1930s, the Department of Interior made a series of films on the nation's growing park system. We’ll screen some of these films from the National Archives holdings, including Land of the Giants (1935, 23 min.), which captures the redwoods, sequoias, old growth forests, marshes, beaches, exotic flora, and fauna in California state parks; Great Smoky Mountains (1936, 11 min.), which explores the purple high country of North Carolina and Tennessee, where Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s 300,000 acres of wilderness boasts some of the highest peaks east of the Rockies and nearly 200 varieties of native flora; and White Sands (1938, 9 min.), which shows the drifting snow-white desert sands, unusual rock formations, and exotic plants of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Presented in partnership with the 2016 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital.

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For press information contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

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