In honor of Swiss Albert Gallatin and his important role in the founding generation of the USA, and the 100th anniversary of the NRIEP, the Swiss Nationality Room Committee and the NRIEP are pleased to present famed biographer Greg May, the leading biographer of Albert Gallatin, Saturday April 18, 2026 at 5pm in CL 332 at 5pm. Emigrating to the US at age 20, Albert Gallatin set up local western Pennsylvania roots near Uniontown, PA with his Friendship Hill estate and became a PA Congressman and Senator, was the first Ways and Means Committee Chairman, and served as Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson that shepherded the Louisiana Purchase to completion. Gallatin funded the Lewis and Clark expedition and the National Road, serving under multiple presidents. He helped end the War of 1812 on the negotiation team and was ambassador to both France and England. Later in life, Gallatin founded the First National Bank of New York and NYU and became the leading ethnologist of the Native-American tribes.
With the topic of our growing national debt taking renewed interest in the current political climate, it is worthwhile to examine Gallatin's urgent message to run the new national government with frugality-not incurring huge debt, as his rival Alexander Hamilton wished. Greg May's talk will focus on this philosophical and financial debate of those times and will include many anecdotes of other aspects of this 'Swiss Founding Father's' life.
Greg May will be available to sell and sign his Gallatin book at the reception to follow in the Croghan-Schenley Room at 6pm. Gallatin re-enactor Ron Duquette will also be present in attendance at the event!
The Swiss Nationality Room Committee and the NRIEP feel this presentation will appeal greatly to: history profs and students, business and finance profs and students, French and German language majors, and all who have a sincere interest in the Founding Generation and unfolding of the American experiment between 1790 and 1840.
Speaker bio:
Gregory May is a historian who writes about the early American republic. He graduated from the College of William and Mary and the Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
After serving as a law clerk for Justice Lewis Powell on the United States Supreme Court, he practiced law in Washington, DC, and New York for over thirty years.
He is the author of Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt and A Madman’s Will: John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom. He is now completing a book about the legacy of slavery that George Washington left to his heirs.