Author Talk: Michelle Craig McDonald

Thursday May 14 2026
Soda House Auditorium 
Registration will be via Eventbrite

Michelle Craig McDonald will speak at an Author Talk at Hagley on Thursday May 14 about her recent book, Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States. Coffee is so ever-present in our lives today that its roots are under-appreciated – especially the contributions of Philadelphia-based merchants in the very early days of our nation to coffee’s popularity. In her talk, McDonald will follow coffee beans from the slavery-based plantations of the Caribbean and South America, through the storehouses and ships of Atlantic world merchants, and then into the brew that was so popular in early America’s coffeehouses, stores, and homes. Her sweeping history will explore how coffee shaped the lives of enslaved laborers and farmers, merchants and retailers, consumers and advertisers, and just plain ordinary Americans. In doing so she will explain how coffee has become ubiquitous and part of our daily lives. Her book will be available for sale and signing by the author – and coffee will be available at her talk along with some light snacks.

Michelle Craig McDonald as an experienced speaker and public historian who currently is the Librarian/Director of the Library and Museum at the American Philosophical Society.