2010 Presenters and Guides

Joan L. Chaconas
Joan Chaconas, historian at Surratt House Museum and a collector of Washingtoniana, is a recognized expert in the field of Washington DC history. She has worked with the Resident Associates Program of the Smithsonian Institution and was a licensed DC tour guide for twenty years. Ms. Chaconas, aided by the late James O. Hall, Lincoln assassination expert, put together the John Wilkes Booth Escape Route tour and has been doing it ever since. She has lectured on the city of Washington, Mary Surratt and the Lincoln assassination, Fort McNair, and John Surratt, Jr. She has provided research for authors and film documentaries. Ms. Chaconas authored the Chapter on John Surratt, Jr. in the book The Trial, and has written numerous articles of historic interest.

Ms. Chaconas discovered among the papers of William Doster, George Atzerodt’s attorney, the long-lost Atzerodt statement made to Provost Marshall McPhail in May of 1865.