Programs · Holmberg Lecture Series
The James J. Holmberg Lecture Series.
Named for the Filson's longtime curator of special collections, the Holmberg series brings the country's leading historians of the Ohio Valley to Louisville for free public conversations. In person and on Zoom.
Next lecture
May 14
2026 · 6:00 PM
The Filson Historical Society
1310 South Third Street
Louisville, Kentucky
Also livestreamed on Zoom for registered attendees.
Featured speaker
This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark
Craig Fehrman
Journalist and historian Craig Fehrman spent five years researching This Vast Enterprise, a new account of the Lewis & Clark expedition that puts the corps and the country it crossed in fresh perspective. His first book, Author in Chief, was called “one of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent years” by Thomas Mallon in The Wall Street Journal. Fehrman lives in Indiana.
About the series
Named for a steward of the collections.
For more than three decades, James J. Holmberg has shaped what the Filson collects, how it is described, and how researchers use it. The lecture series in his name reflects the kind of work he has supported throughout his career: serious public history, written for everyone, grounded in primary source.
Past lecturers have included Pulitzer Prize winners, biographers of the founding generation, scholars of the African American experience in the Ohio Valley, and historians of the Civil War borderlands. Most lectures are free; all are open to the public.
Members go first
Filson members get priority registration and exclusive seating at every lecture.
Lectures fill quickly. Members receive an invitation a week before the public, and reserved seating in the front rows on the night of.