On Wednesday, April 29, 2020, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society presents a noontime lecture with our chief historian, William “Chuck” diGiacomantonio. Join us for an online take on our ongoing lunchtime lectures. We’ll still meet at noon, spend about an hour together, have a presentation, and engage in Q&A. And this event is still free and open to all–please share this information widely!

DiGiacomantonio will offer “Experiencing Defeat.” He’ll use private letters from congressmen to explore how they experienced regime change during and after the transition from John Adams’s presidency to that of Thomas Jefferson. This presentation will include a focus on some of the ways that society in the new capital city, Washington, D.C., was politicized during this period, including in the realms of science, food, and social life. Further, diGiacomantonio promises to discuss Jefferson’s obsession with mammoths.

William “Chuck” diGiacomantonio joined the staff of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society in 2015, after serving on the editorial team that edited the 22-volume Documentary History of the First Federal Congress. The Colonial Society of Massachusetts recently published (June 2019) diGiacomantonio’s own edition of the letters of George Thatcher–a member of that First Federal Congress who served up through the Sixth Congress’s move to DC in 1800–The Insurgent Delegate: Selected Letters and Other Writings of George Thatcher.