National Archives Public Programs in March
Press Release · Monday, February 27, 2023

Washington, DC

In March the National Archives will present free public programs at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, at its Presidential Libraries nationwide, and online. 

(In Person Only) Read Across America 
March 1, 2, and 3, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. CT
Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, AR
Register to attend in person
Launched in 1998 by the National Education Association (NEA), Read Across America is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. Join us at the Clinton Presidential Center for a week-long celebration of diverse characters and innovative stories read by special guests. Each day we will read a different story featuring inclusive themes and characters. 

• Wednesday, March 1: Julian the Mermaid by Jessica Love. Recommended Grade Range: Pre K–3rd.
• Thursday, March 2:  Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliot. Recommended Grade Range: 4th–5th.
• Friday, March 3: Don’t Let Them Disappear by Chelsea Clinton. Recommended Grade Range:  K–3rd.

(In Person Only) The Story of a Speech: A Conversation with Lissa Muscatine
Wednesday, March 1, at 6 p.m. CT
Sturgis Hall at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, AR
Register to attend in person
Lissa Muscatine was a key player in the White House speechwriting team across most of the Clinton years, becoming First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s primary speechwriter. Muscatine will appear as part of the Clinton Presidential Center Presents series to have a conversation about her life as a speechwriter and, in particular, the historic speech at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, that is featured in the Clinton Center’s ongoing special exhibit Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes, Women’s Rights. Dr. Mike Hemphill, Director of Leadership Development at the Clinton Foundation, will lead the conversation with Muscatine. This program is sponsored, in part, by the National Archives Foundation.

Clinton Presidential Center Presents is a partnership between the Clinton Foundation, Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas, and Clinton Presidential Library.

(Online Only) Discussion – Rebellion or Revolution? Understanding the American Revolutionary War
Friday, March 3, at 9 a.m. ET/2 p.m. GMT
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
How do we define loyalty? Rebellion? Resistance? And how were these concepts understood in the context of the American Revolutionary War? This conversation between Philippa Hellawell from the UK National Archives and Corinne Porter from the U.S. National Archives will explore how loyalty was understood in the context of the American Revolutionary War and the factors that influenced the loyalties of diverse individuals in the conflict.

(In Person Only) Sunday Concert Series at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Sunday, March 5, 12, 19, and 26, at 2 p.m. PT
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, CA

• March 5:    Janet Kao and Ching-Ming Cheng – 4-Hand Piano Concert
• March 12:  Doris Chiang – Pianist, Duet Concert
• March 19:  Nuojun Wang – Pianist
• March 26:  Robert Zappulla – Harpsichord Recital

(In Person & Online) Civic Learning Week Opening Forum
Tuesday, March 7,  9 a.m.–2 p.m. ET
William G. McGowan Theater, National Archives Museum, Washington, DC
Register for in person attendance
Register for virtual attendance
Join us at the National Archives in Washington, DC, to kick off Civic Learning Week. The program will feature champions for civic learning and encourages a national dialogue about why civic education is needed more than ever to provide each and every person across this country with the necessary tools to engage as members of our self-governing society.

See the full schedule at the Civic Learning Week website.

(Online Only)  Book Talk – Who Let Them In: Pathbreaking Women in Sports Journalism
Wednesday, March 8, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel 
Author Joanne Lannino will discuss the stories of the tenacious and resilient female sportscasters and writers who paved the way for those who followed Who Let Them In draws on exclusive interviews with such pioneers as CBS Sports’s Lesley Visser, NFL Today’s Andrea Kremer, and Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Claire Smith, revealing the many challenges these women faced as they sought to break down the gender-based barriers that kept them from press boxes, locker rooms, and broadcast booths. 

All American: The Power of Sports and programs presented in conjunction with the exhibit are made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of AT&T, AARP, and Mars, Incorporated. Additional support provided by HISTORY® and the Lawrence F. O’Brien Family.

(Online Only) “Civics for All of US” Distance Learning Program for Students
Voting Rights, the Constitution, and Representative Government
Wednesday, March 8, at 1:15 p.m. ET
Register online
Using the Constitution, constitutional amendments, and legislation, students will explore the progression of voting rights in the United States and its impact on representative government. Additional primary source documents from the National Archives, including photographs and political cartoons, will enhance student understanding of the ways in which contemporary events and public civic engagement influence their lives today.

(Online Only) The National Archives Comes Alive! Young Learners Program: Meet Julia Child
Thursday, March 9, at 11 a.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
Julia Child became a household name after collaborating on the bestselling book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which she followed up with more books and a long-running TV series. Before achieving fame as a culinary wonder, Julia Child played an important role in communications with the OSS, a U.S. Government intelligence agency. Ms. Child will share stories of her youth, her love of cooking, and her role as a traveling the world as a top-secret communicator during World War II. Actor and storyteller Linda Kenyon portrays Julia Child. This program is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation.

(Online Only) “Civics for All of US” Distance Learning Program for Students
The First Amendment: Five Rights in One!
Friday, March 10, at 11:15 a.m. ET
Register online
Students will explore the First Amendment freedoms from the Bill of Rights in this interactive and engaging civics program based on historical primary sources from the National Archives. Students will learn about the importance of First Amendment rights, identify examples in photographs and short written documents, and discover how to exercise those freedoms.

(In Person Only) Celtic Bells – The Irish in Boston
Saturday, March 11, 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. ET
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA
Registration is required 
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, come listen to the story of Irish immigrants in Boston. Celtic Bells weaves in songs and poems of work, humor, protest, longing for home, and longing to feel at home in America. Enjoy the lively music of the fiddle, bodhran (Irish drum), banjo, flute, guitar, and bagpipes. 

(Online Only)  Book Talk – The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
Wednesday, March 15, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted to discriminating against women on its faculty for years, forcing institutions across the country to confront a problem they had long ignored: the need for more women at the top levels of science. Author Kate Zernike, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who broke the story for the Boston Globe, will discuss the story of how 16 highly accomplished women on the MIT faculty came together to do the work that triggered the historic admission. The Exceptions centers on the life of Nancy Hopkins, the leader of the 16 and a hero to two generations of women in science. Joining the author in conversation will be Alexandra Pelosi. 

Women’s History Month programming is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Denise Gwyn Ferguson.

(In Person Only) Film Screening – Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty
Friday, March 17, at 1 p.m. ET
William G. McGowan Theater, National Archives Museum, Washington, DC
Register to attend in person 
In participation with the 2023 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital

Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty is a visually powerful film biography of America’s Interior Secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. From 1961 to1969, Udall added more units to the National Park system than any other Interior Secretary in history while pushing through Congress much of the environmental legislation we now take for granted. Throughout his long life, he fought for racial and social justice, world peace, the arts, and protection of the Earth. This film aims to inspire other Americans to take up the causes that Udall worked for and to protect the beauty of our land. The film’s director, John De Graaf, will introduce the screening.

(In Person and Online) Panel Discussion – The Press and the Presidency
Wednesday, March 22, at 6 p.m. ET
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA
Register online for in person attendance
Ellen Fitzpatrick, Presidential Chair and Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire; Doug Mills, White House photographer for The New York Times, and Darlene Superville, White House Correspondent for the Associated Press, explore key issues in covering the Presidency with Tamara Keith, NPR White House Correspondent and president of the White House Correspondents' Association.  

(Online Only)  Book Talk – Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson 
Thursday, March 23, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
The first woman President was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. She hightailed her way out of Appalachian poverty and into the highest echelons of American power. In 1919 (before women could even vote), she effectively became the first woman President of the United States when her husband, Woodrow Wilson, was incapacitated. Beautiful, brilliant, charismatic, catty, and calculating, she was a complicated figure whose personal quest for influence reshaped the position of First Lady into one of political prominence. Untold Power is a nuanced portrait of Edith Wilson written by Rebecca Boggs Roberts, a leading historian on woman suffrage and power. Women’s History Month programming is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Denise Gwyn Ferguson.

(In Person Only) Cherry Blossom Family Day
Saturday, March 25, 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. ET
Boeing Learning Center, National Archives Museum, Washington, DC
No registration required
Enjoy hands-on activities and celebrate the Cherry Blossoms with the National Archives and the Japan Information and Culture Center! Learn more about this gift from Japan to the U.S. and about other fun ways nations express their friendship, cooperation, and goodwill. This program is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation.

(Online Only)  Book Talk – Fearless Women: Feminist Patriots from Abigail Adams to Beyoncé
Wednesday, March 29, at 1 p.m. ET
Register to attend online; watch on the National Archives YouTube Channel
When America became a nation, a woman had no legal existence beyond her husband. Abigail Adams tried to change this, reminding her husband, John, to “remember the ladies” when Congress formulated laws for the new nation. Fearless Women tells the story of women who dared to take destiny into their own hands, some were abolitionists; some famous like Susan B. Anthony, and most of them considered themselves patriots. Author Elizabeth Cobbs will discuss the stories of fearless women on both sides of the aisle, rich and poor, from all backgrounds and regions, and show that the women’s movement has never been an exclusive club. 

Women’s History Month programming is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Denise Gwyn Ferguson.

Book Talk – The Confidante: the Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America
Wednesday, March 29, at 6 p.m. ET
Henry A. Wallace Center the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY
Registration for in person attendance is required; watch online YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook 

The FDR Presidential Library presents a Women's History Month conversation and book signing with Christopher C. Gorham, author of The Confidant: the Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America. 

(Online Only) “Civics for All of US” Teacher Workshop – The Civilian Conservation Corps: Civics at Work
Thursday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET
Register online
Join the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum for this teacher workshop that will provide resources for exploring how the development of a government “safety net” to protect Americans devastated by the Great Depression affected civic life. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is a great example to use in teaching about how the government responds to crises. By creating opportunities for unemployed young men, the CCC was an innovation in government and a model for future government programs benefiting families, cities, and rural communities.