We aim to share knowledge of Taylor, Fillmore, their letters, and antebellum America as widely as possible. Here you can watch videos that resulted from our outreach efforts. (Scroll down for our Jeopardy! appearance.)
On the February 21, 2024, episode of the American History Gazette podcast, host Jake Suggs spoke with Michael Cohen, our editor and project director, about Zachary Taylor’s life and career. Their conversation covers topics from Taylor’s birth in Virginia to his careers as enslaver and army officer to his sudden illness and death in the White House.
On the February 15, 2024, episode of the Myhistoryvibe podcast, host Carlton Houston spoke with Dr. Cohen about the Taylor-Fillmore project and Zachary Taylor’s relationships with the Black Americans he enslaved. Mr. Houston, a communications professional and a member of our Advisory Board, is a descendant of Taylor and an enslaved woman named Annie.
On the January 18, 2024, episode of the American History Hit podcast, host Don Wildman spoke with Dr. Cohen about Millard Fillmore. This episode was part of a series on each of the presidents. Titled “President Millard Fillmore: The Most Handsome President?,” the discussion covers much more than Fillmore’s appearance.
In June 2023, the Taylor-Fillmore project and the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies hosted the annual conference of the Association for Documentary Editing. That gathering of professionals who expand access to primary historical documents included a roundtable session, on June 23, titled “Still Important Today: Recognizing Historical Patterns in the Present.” Dr. Cohen joined other editors to discuss connections between the past and the present; his comments focused on the blog on this website. C-SPAN covered this session on American History Television, so you can also watch it and check for upcoming TV broadcasts here.
On November 18, 2022, historians and legal scholars gathered at the University of St. Thomas School of Law for its Symposium on Constitutionalism. In a session on “Constitutional History,” Dr. Cohen discussed Taylor’s use of the Constitution during the Mexican-American War and his campaign for the White House. This video includes the whole symposium (see the program). The history session begins at 1:36:20; Dr. Cohen’s talk, at 2:24:04.
On June 11, 2022, Dr. Cohen joined other documentary editors at the American Political History Conference for a roundtable on “Editing Documents in US Political History.” He, Jack McKivigan, Neal Millikan, William diGiacomantonio, and Michael E. Woods discussed the process of editing, primary source editions’ value to understanding history, and their projects’ relationships with students and the public.
On March 22, 2022, Dr. Cohen delivered the Annual Presidential Lecture at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. In conversation with Aaron L. Mason, co-director of NWOSU’s Institute for Citizenship Studies, he discussed the lives and presidencies of—of course—Taylor and Fillmore. (You can see past Presidential Lectures, including another by Dr. Cohen, on NWOSU’s YouTube channel.)
The March 14, 2022, episode of Jeopardy! featured the category “A Few Moments with Millard Fillmore.” We provided the answer-and-question show with research for a clue on Fillmore’s correspondence with Taylor. Host Ken Jennings even gave us a shout out! Can you respond correctly to these Fillmorish clues?
On the October 20, 2020, episode of The Legal Edition, Dr. Cohen spoke with host Mary Kay Elloian about race, slavery, and presidents in the nineteenth century.
