Early Modern History

Alain Touwaide explores some iconic sites in the Mediterranean world—Pompeii, Constantinople, Baghdad, Cordoba, Granada, and Padua, among others—and examines archaeological fields and early manuscripts that illustrate the relationship between humans and nature through time and space. Since ancient times, humans have recognized the therapeutic benefits of nature and have built gardens that helped restore health, both physical and spiritual.Touwaide is scientific director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.

Matthew Fisher, associate professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the earliest collections of medieval English manuscripts, the fires that almost destroyed them, and the radical changes in archival procedures that followed. This is part of the Zambrano Lecture Series at The Huntington.

Kathleen Wilson, professor of history at Stony Brook University and the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow, discusses the revolutionary changes in body politics and polity that occurred in England during the late 18th century, as symbolized by the activities and representations of Admiral Horatio Nelson and his mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton. This is part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at The Huntington.

Tim Harris, professor of history at Brown University and the Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow, examines the causes of the English Civil War and the significance of the revolutionary upheavals in 17th-century England, Scotland, and Ireland. A book signing follows. This is part of The Huntington's Distinguished Fellow Lecture series.

Keith Wrightson, professor or history at Yale University, investigates the idioms used in 16th- and 17th-century England to date events and express the passage of time. This is part of The Huntington's Crotty Lecture series.

Susan Brigden, Langford Fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford, discusses the diplomatic consequences of when Henry VIII declared himself Supreme Head of the Church in England, and how it broke the unity of Christendom. Brigden is the author of Thomas Wyatt: The Heart’s Forest.

John Morrill of Cambridge University draws on eyewitness testimony to examine the exceptional violence and disruption brought about by the Irish Massacres of 1641–42. Morrill chaired the editorial board for the project that put 8,000 survivor statements online at the 1641 Depositions website. This was the 2013–14 Crotty Lecture at The Huntington.

Histories of the Renaissance woman usually conclude that she was “chaste, silent, and obedient” (with the notable exception of Elizabeth I). Claire McEachern, professor of English at UCLA, discusses four extraordinary sisters—Mildred, Anne, Elizabeth, and Katherine Cooke—whose lives as intellectuals, reformers, wives, and mothers challenge the assumptions about was possible for women in the 16th century.