Our congratulations go out to Douglas Bradburn, whom the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has named the founding director of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. As library director, he will oversee Mount Vernon’s efforts to safeguard original Washington books and manuscripts and to foster new scholarly research about George Washington and the Founding Era.
Mark H. Saunders has been named the new director of the University of Virginia Press, succeeding Penelope Kaiserlian, who served as director from 2001 until her retirement in 2012. Saunders assumes his new position immediately. “Mark has a deep understanding of both the substantive and technical sides of publishing, outstanding leadership skills, and an exciting vision for the Press in a fast-changing industry,” says David Klein, Chair of the Board of Directors of UVa Press and Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. “He is a wonderful choice for Director.”
Edmund S. Morgan, a Pulitzer- and Bancroft-Prize-winning author and one of America’s great historians, has passed away at the age of 91. His more than fifteen books display his ability to see how unique combinations of personalities and events make history. “No matter what anyone says,” he once remarked, “history does not repeat itself.”
UVa Press announces the release this week of a powerful new online resource, People of the Founding Era, a digital biographical dictionary that will be open to the public during its beta release. This new resource provides biographical information for thousands of individuals active during a crucial period in American history. Beginning with 12,000 but eventually expanding to over 60,000 people born between 1713 and 1815, the subjects include members of many of the most important families of the era, as well as individuals—such as artisans, merchants, slaves, and Native Americans—whose lives are not typically documented in historical archives.