This was a return appearance for Vlach, who delivered an Overbeck lecture five years earlier on the landowners and residents of Capitol Hill at the time of the federal city’s founding.
A longtime Capitol Hill resident, Vlach served as professor of American studies and anthropology at George Washington Universit and taught there for many years. He has authored 10 books, including Back of the Big House and The Planter's Prospect, and is the curator of an exhibition entitled "Landscape of Slavery" at the Art Museum of the University of Virginia. He also served on the DC Historic Preservation Review Board and provided important advice to the Overbeck Project, including assisting with the training of volunteers.