Margaret Shannon, a research historian with a B.A. in history and music from Transylvania University, established Washington Historical Research in 1978 at the urging of her mentor Catherine Marshall for whom she researched the novel, Julie. A curator of exhibitions at the Library of Congress, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Washington National Cathedral, she is the Cathedral Choral Society's award-winning program annotator. She has worked closely for over two decades with Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Jon Meacham.