diff --git a/examples/Makefile.am b/examples/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..53ead268e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# GTSAM Examples
+#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# use nostdinc to turn off -I. and -I.., we do not need them because 
+# header files are qualified so they can be included in external projects.
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = nostdinc
+
+headers =
+sources = 
+check_PROGRAMS =
+noinst_PROGRAMS =  
+
+# Examples
+noinst_PROGRAMS = SimpleRotation      # Optimizes a single nonlinear rotation variable
+
+#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# rules to build local programs
+#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+AM_LDFLAGS = $(BOOST_LDFLAGS) 
+LDADD = ../libgtsam.la
+AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT = .cpp
+if USE_LDL
+LDADD += libldl.la 
+endif  
+
+# rule to run an executable
+%.run: % $(LDADD)
+	./$^
+
+#----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/examples/SimpleRotation.cpp b/examples/SimpleRotation.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..983d63e10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/SimpleRotation.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/*
+ * SimpleRotation.cpp
+ *
+ * This is a super-simple example of optimizing a single rotation according to a single prior
+ * yet it is quite painful (took 1.5 hours to code from scratch) and is overly complex
+ * An example like this should be very easy to do, so let's work at it.
+ *
+ *  Created on: Jul 1, 2010
+ *  @Author: Frank Dellaert
+ *  @Author: Alex Cunningham
+ */
+
+#include <math.h>
+#include <gtsam/inference/Key.h>
+#include <gtsam/slam/PriorFactor.h>
+#include <gtsam/geometry/Rot2.h>
+#include <gtsam/linear/NoiseModel.h>
+#include <gtsam/nonlinear/LieConfig-inl.h>
+#include <gtsam/nonlinear/NonlinearFactorGraph-inl.h>
+#include <gtsam/nonlinear/NonlinearOptimizer-inl.h>
+
+/*
+ * TODO: make factors independent of Config
+ * TODO: get rid of excessive shared pointer stuff: mostly gone
+ * TODO: make toplevel documentation
+ * TODO: investigate whether we can just use ints as keys
+ */
+
+using namespace std;
+using namespace gtsam;
+
+typedef TypedSymbol<Rot2, 'x'> Key;
+typedef LieConfig<Key> Config;
+typedef NonlinearFactorGraph<Config> Graph;
+typedef Factorization<Graph,Config> Solver;
+typedef NonlinearOptimizer<Graph,Config> Optimizer;
+
+const double degree = M_PI / 180;
+
+int main() {
+
+	// optimize a unary factor on rotation 1
+
+	// Create a factor
+	Rot2 prior1 = Rot2::fromAngle(30 * degree);
+	SharedDiagonal model1 = noiseModel::Isotropic::Sigma(1, 1 * degree);
+	Key key1(1);
+	PriorFactor<Config, Key> factor1(key1, prior1, model1);
+
+	// Create a factor graph
+	Graph graph;
+	graph.add(factor1);
+
+	// and an initial estimate
+	Config initialEstimate;
+	initialEstimate.insert(1, Rot2::fromAngle(20 * degree));
+
+	// create an ordering
+	Optimizer::shared_config result = Optimizer::optimizeLM(graph, initialEstimate, Optimizer::LAMBDA);
+	GTSAM_PRINT(*result);
+
+	return 0;
+}