American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 01609
United States
Join us in person, or virtually, to hear Karin Wulf speak on her newest book Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America. Genealogy is everywhere– online, on screens, and through organizations and conferences and more. But technologies aside, genealogy was everywhere in the 18th century, too. I’ve written a book about that, about how meaningful genealogy was for diverse early Americans, in part because genealogy was foundational in law, politics, and religion and for plenty of purposes--including slavery. Drawn from research from Maine to Georgia, and with a special affection and appreciation for the AAS, this talk will highlight the major themes but also some of the local contexts for why family histories were so important.
Karin Wulf is the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian at the John Carter Brown Library and Professor of History at Brown University. A historian of early America, what she refers to as “Vast Early America,” from 2013 to 2021 she was the Executive Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture and Professor of History at William & Mary. Wulf earned her PhD in history from Johns Hopkins University. She writes for public and academic audiences about early American history, the worlds of scholarship and scholarly publishing, and why footnotes can save democracy (really). The author or editor of prize-winning scholarship on gender, family, and politics, her book Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in 18th Century British America is published by Oxford University Press in 2025. She serves on a variety of non-profit boards, including the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc. and the National Humanities Alliance, and is a co-founder of Women Also Know History.