JMRL has been awarded a Revisiting the Founding Era Grant to implement public programming and community conversations that explore America’s founding and its enduring themes. As part of the grant, JMRL received $1,000 to help implement programs, and additional digital resources, training, and support from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the American Library Association. These resources will allow JMRL to launch a two-program series on the Founding Era. And local residents are invited to attend the following two free events:

Revisiting the Founding Era Panel on Saturday February 9, 2019, at 2 – 3:30PM
Clay Hansen, Executive Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, will join UVa’s Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History, Alan Shaw Taylor, to talk about the Constitution writing process and founders’ intent through the lens of current events in Charlottesville and across the nation. The discussion will be moderated by local librarian and local historian Miranda Burnett at the Northside Library.

Constitution Community Discussion on Sunday 24, 2019, at 2 – 3:30PM 
Join your neighbors for a community discussion event reflecting on current events through a historical lens with a focus on the founding fathers. Discussion facilitator Dr. Michael Dickens will lead this event at the Central Library.

Revisiting the Founding Era is a three-year national initiative of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, presented in partnership with the American Library Association and the National Constitution Center, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant provided 100 public libraries across the country the opportunity to use historical documents to spark public conversations about the Founding Era’s enduring ideas and themes.