American Association of Teachers of French

Port Allen – West Baton Rouge Historical Association and West Baton Rouge Museum with support from the Louisiana Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French are pleased to announce the guest presenter for the annual Ethel Claiborne Dameron Lecture Series. In celebration of America 250, join us on Sunday, November 22, 2026 at 2:30pm in welcoming historian, author, and speaker, Dr. Iris de Rode for a presentation on French involvement in the American Revolution and cultural connections between Louisiana and France. This presentation will be followed by a reception provided by the WBR Historical Association’s hospitality committee. Both the lecture and the reception will be held at the West Baton Rouge Museum.

Dr. Iris de Rode is a historian of the French role in the American Revolution. In the family chateau of Major General Francois-Jean de chastellux in Burgundy, she uncovered his unpublished papers. Chastellux, a French officer in Rochambeau’s army and close friend of George Washington, became the focus of her PhD (2019) and her book (2022), which received the Prix Guizot of the Academie Francaise in 2023. She has held more than twenty research fellowships, appears in Ken Burns’s PBS series The American Revolution, advises major museums and digital-heritage projects on both sides of the Atlantic, and is now completing a book on the French in the American Revolution.

The Ethel Claiborne Dameron Lecture Series is FREE and open to the public. This event is offered annually in memory of the West Baton Rouge Historical Association and the West Baton Rouge Museum founder, Ethel Claiborne Dameron affectionately known as “Puffy.”