Join us at Woodlawn this spring for our Coffee and Conversation series, where we bridge the gap between scholarly research and community dialogue. Each session pairs scholarly insight with community dialogue, offering a unique space to learn, reflect, and connect.
When: Third Saturday of the month, 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Tickets: $50 individual/ $120 season package
Bundle & Save: Purchase a Spring Package for $120 to attend all three sessions (a $30 savings!)
The northern Quakers who had settled at Woodlawn as an antislavery colony in 1846 found themselves in a precarious position when the Civil War disrupted life in their small biracial farming community. Surrounded by slaveholders and Secessionists among whom they had previously co-existed peacefully, they were subjected to Confederate conscription, harassment, and raids. Once the Union Army was able to incorporate the Woodlawn neighborhood into its defenses, their Quaker meetinghouse was commandeered as headquarters for the Union picket guard, and farm goods, livestock, supplies, buildings, and fencing were appropriated. Yet Confederate incursions, kidnappings, and death threats persisted. How did the Friends, as both antislavery and pacifist citizens, navigate these challenges? How did alliances between Quakers and African Americans – both free and enslaved – uniquely serve the Union Army? What choices were they forced to make to survive, to protect their community, or to help the Union cause?
1:00 pm: Join a subject matter expert for an in-depth exploration of local history and its national relevance.
2:30 pm: Engage in spirited conversation with the speaker over coffee and light refreshments, early access of Woodlawn’s new exhibit Friends Gather Here, with special "collection spotlights" curated by our collections team.
Your Ticket Includes:
Lecture & Q&A: Admission to the keynote presentation and interactive Q&A session
Sneak Peek: Early access viewing of the new exhibit Friends Gather Here: A Legacy of Two Communities at Woodlawn with curator-led tours.
Vault Access: A viewing of rarely seen artifacts from the Woodlawn Collection highlighting the Quaker and Free Black Community.
Historic Tours: Access to the Woodlawn estate for open house tours.
Refreshments: Complimentary coffee and light bites
About the Speaker:
A lifelong Quaker, Martha Claire Catlin has served for over thirty years as Historian for her longtime worship community, Alexandria Friends Meeting at Woodlawn. She retired from a career in public history, arts administration, and historic preservation, in Arizona, Montana, and the DC area. From 1987 to 2009, as a federal employee, she was a member of the professional staff to the presidentially appointed Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. In that position, she taught federal preservation law and mediated disputes over federal actions that posed threats to historic places nationwide, including places of religious and cultural significance to Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and traditional African American communities. She holds a master’s degree in American History from Montana State University and a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Philosophy from Northern Arizona University.
She is the author of As They Were Led: Quakerly Steps and Missteps Toward Native Justice 1795-1940, and The Quaker Scout: Testimony of a Civil War Non-Combatant of the Woodlawn Antislavery Colony. The books were published by Quaker Heron Press in 2021 and 2022.
Her current book project, Redeeming George Washington’s Promise: Freedpeople, Quakers, and the Lost Colony of Woodlawn, explores the legacies of families, including those descended from Mount Vernon’s enslaved people, who, over a decade before the Civil War, formed a free Black enclave at Woodlawn, allied with an antislavery colony of Quakers.