Explore Some German Connections to Stephen Girard and His Eponymous College this September

The recently restored George Herzog ceiling at Founder's Hall, Girard College. Photo by Juan Vidalat. Image courtesy of the Girard College Historical Collection.

Portrait of a Citizen: Stephen Girard, Mariner, Merchant, Banker & Philanthropist of the Early American Republic, and his German American Connections

Thursday, September 17, 2026 | 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. | German Society of Pennsylvania | 611 Spring Garden Street | Philadelphia, PA 19123 | Register here.
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One can find German history everywhere, including in that bastion of French Philadelphian history, Girard College! 

The name “Stephen Girard” looms large over Philadelphia today, both because of the fortune he left to the city of Philadelphia upon his death in 1831, and because of the many Civil Rights controversies surrounding his namesake school, Girard College, in the twentieth century. Born in France in 1750 before settling in Philadelphia in June 1776, Girard’s life story parallels the rise of the American republic he chose to call home.

This talk explores the notable events, actions, and controversies of Girard’s life and afterlife—his volunteerism during the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793, his financial investment in the U.S. government during the War of 1812, and his decision to bequeath his fortune to the city of Philadelphia—through the lens of his intellectual and domestic lives. We will meet a man whose legacy was shaped by the grand ideas of his age, as well as the free and enslaved men and women with whom he shared his home. Girard’s wife Mary, his enslaved woman Hannah, and the panoply of other family members, laborers, and romantic partners who spent time in the Girard household all figure in the merchant-banker’s lasting, and complex, legacy. The talk will raise questions about the nature of citizenship, family, philanthropy, and social belonging as pressing in 2026 as they were in 1776.

Offered as part of the German Society’s semiquincentennial celebrations, the talk will also highlight some of Girard’s German connections, most notably a look at his maritime vessels’ German ports of call, the Society’s German translation of Girard’s famous last will and testament, as well as the story of a German American craftsman named George Herzog who painted the ceilings in Founder’s Hall at Girard College decades after Stephen Girard’s death.