When most people picture the end of the American Revolution, they envision French Naval vessels sitting off the coast, the white flag waving over Yorktown, and the signatures of new Americans alongside British representatives on the Treaty of Paris. But the Coastal Georgia Historical Society’s 2026 Chautauqua Lecture Series asks, “Could a conflict so philosophical and essential to who we are—as people and as a nation—really end with the surrender of Cornwallis?” Even as we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, the root causes of the war with Britain and the ideology that gave rise to the Patriot movement still remain.
This year’s Chautauqua Lecture Series, Beyond 1776: The Aftermath and Enduring Legacies of the American Revolution, will explore in-depth, through the eyes of experts in four different fields, the Revolution’s lasting power and its ideas’ ongoing role in civics education, world history, women’s rights, and the study of the war itself. Lectures take place at St. Simons Presbyterian Church beginning at 6:00 p.m. on the Thursday evenings indicated below.
September 3: Dr. Richard Bell, a Professor of History at the University of Maryland, will present The American Revolution and the Fate of the World. From 2021 through 2023, Dr. Bell was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and he has held research fellowships at more than two dozen libraries and institutes.
September 10: Dr. Emma Humphries, who has been the Chief Education Officer of iCivics, the country’s largest civics education organization, since 2016, will lecture on the Legacies of the Revolution through Civics Education. Dr. Humphries began her career as a classroom teacher, focusing on American government, before receiving her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida.
September 17: Dr. Charlene Boyer Lewis presents Beyond Remember the Ladies: The Impact of the Revolution on Women. Dr. Boyer Lewis is the Director of American Studies and of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Kalamazoo College. She specializes in women’s history, southern history, and American cultural and social history in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
September 24: Dr. Andrew Davenport will wrap up the lecture series with Echoes of the Revolutionary Era. Dr. Davenport is the Vice President for Research and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
A Series Pass (admission to all 4 lectures) is $50 for Coastal Georgia Historical Society members and $95 for non-members. Individual Lecture Tickets (admission to a single lecture) are $30 for both members and non-members. Purchase online at coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
