2010 AAG ANNUAL MEETING
April 14-18, 2010 – Washington, DC

The Washington Region

Washington, DC and the surrounding region are rich in geo graph ical variety and offer great opportunities for field trips, excursions, and exploration. The AAG welcomes field trip proposals from all AAG members and registered meeting participants.

The site for the capital of the United States was established in July of 1790. The land for the site was surveyed by Andrew Ellicott with the help of Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught mathematician and astronomer and a free black from nearby Maryland. Banneker’s celestial calculations were used to set 40 boundary stones at one-mile intervals to mark the boundaries of the district.

The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the Territory of Columbia until an act of Congress merged the city and the territory into a single entity. Today, the District of Columbia welcomes ap proximately 15 million visitors each year to its many historic sites, museums, and memorials.

The city is also home to many popular arts and cultural organizations. Take in a play at Ford’s Theater, Arena Stage, or one of DC’s many other playhouses. See a production by the Shakespeare Theater Company at the Folger Shakespeare Theater, or a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, or the Washington Ballet at the Kennedy Center. Explore the Smithsonian Institution’s many museums, or visit the National Holo caust Museum. Both the Library of Congress and the National Archives offer extraordinary resources for scholars. Mount Vernon, George Washington’s beautiful home and a national historic site, is located only a few miles south of the city on the Virginia side of the Potomac River.   

A Cosmopolitan City

Away from Washington’s many celebrated destinations, the city unwinds into a fascinating network of charming neighborhoods, each with its own cultural spaces and festivals, famous eateries, historic homes, and lush parks and gardens. Fans of jazz will want to visit U Street’s lively jazz scene, where Duke Ellington and many other greats once performed. The city’s international character shines through in its Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle neighborhoods, two prime destinations for eclectic dining and nightlife and the historic center of the city’s embassy community.

Washington is renowned for the quality of its many excellent restaurants featuring various types of national cuisine. Popular local favorites are also a strong draw (ask AAG staff members where to go for a great chili dog or the best home cooked southern-style breakfast). A truly cosmopolitan city, over 1.2 million international visitors tour DC annually, and the many ethnicities of the city’s residents come from many countries all around the world.

Perhaps Washington’s best-known single event is its National Cherry Blossom Festival, celebrated each spring by over one million visitors on the Washington Mall. The festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the mayor of Tokyo to the city of Washington. The cherry blossoms should be in bloom for the 2010 AAG Annual Meeting, which also coincides with spectacular weekend garden tours of the White House, available to the public only twice each year.

Read articles from the AAG Newsletter on Washington and the surrounding region. Read more»