My Work as a Historian

I am a cultural historian of eighteenth-century Anglo-America, focusing primariy (but not exclusively) on material culture, historic spaces, and the world of Benjamin Franklin.  My interests range from the history of race and slavery to what objects can tell us about people who lived in another time to what portraits reveal about their subjects, artists, and world.

I believe strongly that history must reach wide, diverse public audiences, and have worked with historic sites and museums to engage audiences, tell more complete and complex stories, and interpret the lives of all people in the past. This work has included researching spaces, stuff, and people of the past, working with boards and staffs, and talking with audiences and interpreters.

I engage audiences through writing and publishing.  In addition to the two books I have published (and the two that are in the editorial pipeline), I have edited two historical journals, published articles, essays,  and reviews, and worked editing the work of many other authors.

My Amazon author's page is:  Amazon.com: George W. Boudreau: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle 

My current projects reflect the diversity of the ideas I engage: an essay on enslaved and free African-American women in Federal Philadelphia, and a book-length study of historic sites and the ways they interpret the past.  More to come!

I love engaging audiences through public programs, including lectures, historic site tours, zoom programs, and training sessions.  I think it is critical that professional historians give back to the public, learn together, and improve the ways we know and understand the past.

I try to keep my rates competitive and reasonable for these programs.  Please inquire for details.

K-12 teachers are critical. They inspire, engage, provoke. It's been my honor to work with teachers to teach history better.

To date, I've led six workshops funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  See my website, www.teachingfranklin.org for details, lesson plans, and othe rmaterials.

I've also been honored to work with teachers through the Gilder Lehrman summer program and other groups.  I'm always happy to accept more invitations and work with more great teachers!

Hillary Clinton's historic run for the presidency in 2016 inspired me to seek new ways to tell women's stories in public history.

My first project of the 'Remember The Women" campaign was to nominate an important, but overlooked woman in early Philadelphia history for a state historical marker.

Our marker honoring Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker was dedicated in 2019.  More to follow!

See www.RememberTheWomen.org for more details.