Tax Day: UVA professor to talk President Wilson, income tax at WWPL

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum‘s speaker series continues on Monday, April 15, 2024 with UVA Professor Mark Thomas on Wilson and the income tax.

The talk begins at 7 p.m. and registration is requested. Donations to WWPL are welcome, but not necessary.

On October 7, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that initiated the modern income tax. On this tax day, 120 years later, our speaker asks, what precisely was Wilson’s role in establishing the much loathed and feared fiscal instrument?

Thomas teaches history and economics at UVA. His area of specialty is modern economic and business history. A native Briton, Thomas received his bachelor’s from Oxford University, holds a master’s in Economics from Cornell University and completed his D.Phil. at Nuffield College, Oxford. Outside of academics, he enjoys reading detective novels, listening to jazz and classical music, playing cricket and croquet and spending time with his wife, Georgi Tomisato, children and grandchildren.

Thomas will speak at the Woodrow Wilson Archives & Research Center at 325 E. Beverley St, and will also be available virtually via Zoom.

WWPL is an educational institution dedicated to the study of the life of Wilson and the times in which he lived. In addition to welcoming museum visitors from around the world, the Presidential Library produces online and in-person educational programming for people of all ages. The Museum is at 20 N. Coalter Street, Staunton.