Boston Athenaeum

Boston Athenaeum

By Boston AthenaeumSociety & Culture
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Boston Athenaeum episodes

  • Elizabeth E. Barker, Ph.D., “The Boston Athenæum: Past, Present, Future”
    May 14, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    The Boston Athenæum holds a position of undisputed importance in the history of American libraries and museums. But what lies in store? Can an illustrious institution that came of age amidst the intellectual flowering of 19th-century New England remain relevant in an age of digital devices, in a region now known for biotech?
    Athenæum director Elizabeth Barker will explore these and other questions in a richly illustrated lecture that ranges across the Boston Athenæum’s history and identifies several key factors likely to shape its future—a prospect, she will argue, that appears no less brilliant than its glorious past.
    1 hr 20 min
  • Derek W. Beck, “Igniting the American Revolution: 1773-1775”
    June 21, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Spanning the years 1773 to 1775, Igniting the American Revolution sweeps readers from the Boston Tea Party and the halls of Parliament, to the fateful expedition to Lexington and Concord and the shot heard round the world. Vividly detailed and meticulously researched, this captivating history reveals the events that altered the futures of not only England and America, but the whole world.
    50 min
  • Nathaniel Philbrick, “Valiant Ambition”
    June 16, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Nathaniel Philbrick will share his surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. He will share excerpts from his book Valiant Ambition, a complex, controversial, and dramatic portrait of a people in crisis and the war that gave birth to a nation. He will argue that after four years of war, America was forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties was not from without but from within.
    48 min
  • Joshua C. Kendall, “First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama”
    June 16, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Every U.S. president has had some experience as a parent. Of the 43 men who have served in the nation's highest office, 38 have fathered biological children and the other five adopted children. Each president's parenting style reveals much about his beliefs as well as his psychological make-up. James Garfield enjoyed jumping on the bed with his kids. FDR's children, on the other hand, had to make appointments to talk to him. In this presentation, Kendall will discuss with the audience how the fathering experiences of American presidents have forever changed the course of the nation’s history.
    48 min
  • Louisa Thomas, “Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams”
    June 9, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Born in London to an American father and a British mother on the eve of the Revolutionary War, Louisa Catherine Johnson was raised in a manner very different from the New England upbringing of her future husband and president John Quincy Adams. Their often tempestuous but deeply close marriage lasted half a century. They lived in Prussia, Massachusetts, Washington, Russia, and England; they lived at royal courts, on farms, in cities, and in the White House. Louisa saw more of Europe and America than nearly any other woman of her time. But wherever she lived, she was always pressing her nose against the glass, not quite sure whether she was looking in or out. The other members of the Adams family could take their identities for granted—they were Adamses; they were Americans—but she had to invent her own. The story of Louisa Catherine Adams is one of a woman who forged a sense of self. As the America found its place in the world, she found a voice. That voice resonates still. In this talk, Louisa Thomas will share excerpts from her biography of Adams, a deeply felt and intimate portrait of a remarkable woman, a complicated marriage, and a pivotal historical moment.
    43 min
  • Eric Jay Dolin, “Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse”
    June 2, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    In this talk, Dolin will share with the audience excerpts from Brilliant Beacons, an extraordinary work of historical detection and originality, which vividly reframes America’s history through the development of its lighthouses. Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America’s lighthouse system, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation’s hardscrabble coastlines. In rollicking detail, Dolin will introduce audiences to a memorable cast of characters including the penny-pinching Treasury official Stephen Pleasonton, and share tales both humorous and harrowing of soldiers, saboteurs, ruthless egg collectors, and most importantly, the light-keepers themselves.
    53 min
  • Lucy Keating, “Dreamology: Publishing A Debut Novel”
    June 1, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Vibrantly offbeat and utterly original, Lucy Keating’s debut novel, Dreamology, combines the unconventional romance of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the sweetness and heart of Jenny Han. During this lecture, Keating will discuss the process of publishing her first novel, and the implications for her contractual second novel. Writers will learn how to get published and listen to insights into the publishing industry.
    25 min
  • Authenticity and Accessibility: Art Reproduction Today
    May 23, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Join moderator Elisabeth Nevins and panelists Hannah Goodwin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Steve Gyurina of Artopia Giclée; and Jim Olson of the Peabody Essex Museum for a discussion about the contemporary methods and ramifications of art reproduction. Discussion topics will range from the use of reproductions of artworks as points of access for museum visitors who are blind or have other disabilities, to use of 3D-printed reproductions in a museum exhibition setting, to the creation of faithful reproductions of artists’ works for sale. Our panelists will explore issues of methodology, pedagogy, access, and ethics in their presentations.
    55 min
  • Thad Carhart, “Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France”
    May 23, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    In the 1950s, soon after the end of World War II, four-year-old Thad Carhart’s family—his NATO officer father, his mother, and his four siblings—packed up their suburban life in Arlington, Virginia, and moved to Fontainebleau, France, a lively provincial town surrounding a sprawling masterpiece of French architecture, the Château of Fontainebleau. In his new memoir, Finding Fontainebleau, New York Times bestselling author Carhart intertwines stories from his family’s years living in the shadow of the Château with the stories of the palace itself, from its heyday as the preferred royal hunting retreat to today, when efforts are underway to restore it to its former splendor.
    Against the background of the rapid modernization of France in the 1950s stands the Château of Fontainebleau, an anchor against the seas of time. Begun in 1137, fifty years before the Louvre and more than five hundred before Versailles, the Château was a home for Marie-Antoinette, François I, and the two Napoleons, among others, all of whom added to its splendors without destroying the work of their predecessors. As a consequence, the Château is unique in France, a supreme repository of French style, taste, art, and architecture. Finding Fontainebleau tells the rich and improbable stories of these monarchs and their remarkable architectural legacy. Thoughtful, transporting, and often funny, Finding Fontainebleau is a fresh look at a lesser-known France, from the parks and museums of Paris – much less crowded in the 1950s, when you could walk through completely empty galleries in the Louvre – to the quieter joys of towns like Fontainebleau.
    34 min
  • Mark Kurlansky, “Paper: Paging Through History”
    May 18, 2016 at the Boston Athenæum.
    Paper is one of the simplest and most essential forms of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art. It has created civilizations, fostered revolutions, and stabilized regimes. Consider, for example, history’s greatest press run, which produced 6.5 billion copies of Máo zhuxí yulu Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Zedong), or the fact that Leonardo da Vinci left behind only 15 paintings but 4,000 works on paper. Now, on the cusp of “going paperless” – and amid rampant speculation about the effects of a digitally dependent society – we’ve come to a world-historic juncture and must examine what paper means to civilization. By tracing paper’s evolution, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology’s influence, affirming that paper is here to stay.
    52 min

About Boston Athenaeum

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The Boston Athenaeum, a membership library, first opened its doors in 1807, and its rich history as a library and cultural institution has been well documented in the annals of Boston’s cultural life.…