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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Boston Athenaeum

The Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest and most distinguished independent libraries in the United States, was founded in 1807 by members of the Anthology Society, a group of fourteen Boston gentlemen who had joined together in 1805 to edit The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. Their purpose was to form "an establishment similar to that of the Athenaeum and Lyceum of Liverpool in Great Britain; combining the advantages of a public library [and] containing the great works of learning and science in all languages." The library and Art Gallery, established in 1827, were soon flourishing, and grew rapidly, both by purchase of books and art and by frequent gifts. For nearly half a century the Athenaeum was the unchallenged center of intellectual life in Boston, and by 1851 had become one of the five largest libraries in the United States. Today its collections comprise over half a million volumes, with particular strengths in Boston history, New England state and local history, biography, English and American literature, and the fine and decorative arts. The Athenaeum supports a dynamic art gallery, and sponsors a lively variety of events such as lectures and concerts. It also serves as a stimulating center for discussions among scholars, bibliophiles, and a variety of community interest groups.break

http://www.bostonathenaeum.org

  • Chasing the Masterpiece of Copernicus

    Thu, Mar 25, 2004
    Owen Gingerich one of the world's leading authorities on Galileo and Copernicus, shares his 30-year obsession with the fact that shortly before his death in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published *De revolutionibu*. A groundbreaking scientific work, it revealed that we live in a sun - rather than earth - centered universe. Curious about the contention that the book went largely unread at the time, Gingerich undertook a trek around the world to hunt down the 600-odd extant first and second printings. The result is *The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Copernicus* - part travelogue, part science detective story, party biography of a book and its illustrious author.
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  • How Genomes and Other Forces are Changing Your Life

    Thu, Dec 11, 2003
    Juan Enriquez discusses his book, *As the Future Catches You*, which puts the reader face to face with a series of unprecedented political, ethical, economic, and financial issues, dramatically demonstrating the cascading impact of the genetic, digital, and intellectual revolutions of life. **Juan Enriquez** is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences. He is chairman and CEO of Biotechnology, a company dedicated to the research and funding of startups that enable the genomic revolution. Enriquez is the director of the Life Sciences Project at Harvard Business School, where he is building an interdisciplinary center focusing on how business will change as a result of the life sciences revolution.
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  • Paths of Desire: Passions of a Suburban Gardener

    Thu, Apr 15, 2004
    Dominique Browning discusses her latest book, Paths of Desire: Passions of a Suburban Gardner.
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  • William Clark and the Shaping of the West

    Fri, Apr 23, 2004
    Landon Jones discusses the life of William Clark, and describes the dark and bloody ground of America's early West, describing how the West was won and what we gained and lost by winning it. Between 1803 and 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark co-captained a fabled expedition across the vast, largely unexplored reaches of the North American continent. Lewis ended his life three years after returning to civilization, but Clark, as the highest-ranking federal official in the West, spent three decades overseeing the consequences of the historic journey, namely, Indian removal and the destruction of Native America.
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  • Boston's Love for Neoclassical Sculptors

    Thu, May 6, 2004
    David Dearinger discusses Boston's obsession with neoclassical sculpture in the 1800s. From early in its history, the city of Boston exhibited a certain awareness of culture, and a number of its citizens labored within the new republic to establish an environment in which the fine arts could flourish. Early evidence of these efforts is seen in their fascination with neoclassical sculpture. From the 1820s through the 1860s, Bostonians commissioned and purchased the finest examples of the marble (or marmorean) products of American artists who worked in this refined, classically based style. They gave much needed monetary and psychological support to many American artists, but many natives, including Thomas H. Perkins, Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, Charlotte Cushman, Harriet Lee, and several members of the Cabot, Cushing, and Appleton families, had a particular affinity for the American sculptors. These men and women formed a distinctive pool of patrons on which American sculptors, including Horatio Greenough, Thomas Crawford, Hiram Powers, and Harriet Hosmer could depend for purposeful, sincere, and even altruistic support that represents one of American art history's great aesthetic love affairs. **David Dearinger** is the Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. An art historian and curator, he received his PhD, with a specialty in nineteenth-century American art, from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He taught art history in New York at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, and, for many years, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Before coming to Boston, he was Chief Curator at the National Academy of Design in New York. He has published and lectured widely on the history of American painting and sculpture.
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  • Fragments of Grace: My Search for Meaning in South Asia

    Fri, Jun 18, 2004
    Pamela Constable reads from and discusses her book, Fragments of Grace. For four and a half years, Constable, a veteran foreign correspondent and award-winning author, traveled through South Asia on assignment for the Washington Post. Following religious conflicts, political crises, and natural disasters, she also searched for signs of humanity and dignity in societies rife with violence, poverty, prejudice, and greed. Between extended sojourns in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Constable returned to the West to reflect on the risks and rewards of her profession, revisit her roots, and compare her experiences with Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. Her book, Fragments of Grace, is a uniquely personal exploration of the rich but solitary life of a foreign correspondent, set against a regional backdrop of extraordinary political and religious tumult. **Pamela Constable** has been covering South Asia for the Washington Postsince April 1999, spending four years as the region's bureau chief. She is the author with Arturo Valenzuela of A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet. She has been awarded an Alicia Patterson Fellowship and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, and was a Pew International Journalism Program's journalist-in-residence.
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  • Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey

    Wed, Sep 15, 2004
    Fiction writer Dan Rhodes discusses his new novel, *Timoleon Vieta Come Home*. Rattling around his dilapidated farmhouse in the Italian countryside, faded composer and socialite Cockroft has only one constant companion: Timoleon Vieta, a loyal mongrel with beautiful eyes. When a handsome but surly individual arrives on the scene, Cockroft is forced to choose between his dog and the new arrival. He abandons Timoleon outside Rome's Coliseum, where the dog begins a long journey home. **Dan Rhodes** has published two collections of short fiction: *Anthropology: and a Hundred Other Stories* (2000), which contains short, darkly humorous stories about romantic relationships, and *Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love* (2001), which consists of seven longer stories on a similar theme. Rhodes also was recently named by *Granta* one of 20 "Best Young British Novelists." *Timoleon Vieta Come Home* is his first novel.
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  • Bush, Blair, and Iraq: The Making of a Catastrophe

    Fri, Nov 5, 2004
    Simon Jenkins argues that, though much has been made of the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom and of the personal relationship between George Bush and Tony Blair, the war in Iraq has strained these public and private ties.
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  • Presidential Health: Bloodletting to Ballistics

    Thu, Oct 28, 2004
    Kevin R. Loughlin traces events involving the health of presidents from George Washington to the present day. He reviews the impairments of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy that were hidden from the public, and describes the gory circumstances of Washington's demise (he was essentially bled to death). Loughlin also discusses the cardiac history of Dwight Eisenhower, which was misdiagnosed as indigestion by his well-meaning personal physician and friend; a president who underwent secret surgery aboard a yacht in the East River; and some of the medical aspects of the presidential assassinations. Loughlin concludes with an analysis of how presidential health is currently monitored and offers recommendations for the future. **Kevin R. Loughlin** has been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School for over two decades, where he is currently professor of surgery. Throughout his surgical career, he has had an interest in medical history and has written and lectured on this area numerous times. He has had a particular interest in the health of US presidents and the impact of their illnesses on history.
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  • Favorite English Country Houses

    Thu, Nov 4, 2004
    Sir Simon Jenkins explores the eclectic range of English properties among his own personal favorites. England retains far more great houses with their contents intact and on display than any other country in the world, with houses of interest ranging from Cornwall in the south to Cumbria in the far north. He looks beyond the architecture to focus on the often fascinating and sometimes amusing personal histories of the owners. Included are such properties as Bodiam, Hardwick, Kingston Lacy, Chastleton, Castle Drogo, Cothele, and Lanhydrock.
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