Not-Yet Members Lecture Series Package. Available August 27, 2026.
Members Lecture Series Package. Available August 27, 2026.
Insiders Lecture Series Package. $130.
Please note that the series package includes all seven lectures taking place every Monday from January 25 to March 8, 2027.
The series will take place in McElreath Hall. Doors open at 1:30pm and lectures begin promptly at 2:00 pm with a brief intermission. Parking is free.
About the Lecture
In the summer of 1824, the aging Marquis de Lafayette returned to America for the first time in forty years to find a vastly transformed nation. Thirteen colonies were now twenty-four states, thriving but facing new political storms. For thirteen months Lafayette traveled thousands of miles, visiting every state, greeted by enthusiastic crowds, elaborate parades, and citizens united in gratitude to the old general and his fellow veterans of the Revolution. Ryan L. Cole, author of "The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic," will share not just the excitement and spectacle surrounding Lafayette's last visit to America, but its significance to the young republic, and its lasting lessons for contemporary America.
*Copies of Ryan Cole’s book, The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic, will be available on site for purchase at the event.
About the Lecturer
Ryan L. Cole is the author of The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic and Light-Horse Harry Lee: Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and he has spoken at historic venues including George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the Library of Congress.