Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

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

Lewis Lapham: Theatre of War

Thu, Feb 27, 2003

Lewis Lapham discusses his collection of essays, Theater of War. Taking the war on terror as the most recent example, Lapham considers America's long tradition of gratuitous conflict, and its quixotic attempts at arbitrating 'good' and 'freedom,' culminating in the endowment of nation status upon the hijackers that began the present war. Lapham shows that the recent behavior of the United States' government is consistent with the practices of past administrations. Mr. Lapham questions the motives and feasibility of our country's ongoing crusades against the world's evildoers.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Picture Books: A Reading for Children

Sat, Oct 4, 2003

Children's book creators Barbara McClintock, Phyllis Root, and Helen Oxenbury read their stories aloud to a group of children at the Boston Athenaeum. Barbara McClintock reads from her book Dahlia. One morning Charlotte gets a package from her Aunt Edme. Inside is a delicate doll. Charlotte never wanted a doll, and she certainly doesn't want this one. She names the doll Dahlia and tells her that she and Bruno, her bear, "like digging in dirt and climbing trees. No tea parties, no being pushed around in frilly prams. You'll just have to get used to the way we do things." Dahlia doesn't seem to mind. What's more, she seems to like getting dirty while making mud cakes and racing wagons. But at the end of the day, Charlotte's aunt arrives for a visit and wants to see how Dahlia is doing and Charlotte gets another surprise. Phyllis Root and Helen Oxenbury read from their book Big Momma Makes the World. When Big Momma makes the world, she doesn't mess around. Earth, she says, get over here. And it does. With a little baby on her hip and laundry piling up, Big Momma asks for light and dark, sea and sky, creepers and crawlers, and lots of folks to trade stories with on the front porch. And when the work is done, Big Momma is pleased all right. "That's good," she says, "That's real good."

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Sweetwater: Secrets of a Yankee Life

Thu, Nov 13, 2003

Roxana Robinson discusses *Sweetwater*, her story of a woman whose second marriage casts into sharp relief the painful echoes of her first. The book draws together the disparate strands of family complexities, social tensions, and the fragility of the natural world in this moving novel.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Gay Talese: His Portraits and Encounters

Thu, Nov 20, 2003

Gay Talese discusses his newest submission to the literary world, The Gay Talese Reader. Attention to detail and observation of the unnoticed are the hallmarks of Gay Talese's writing, and The Gay Talese Reader brings together the best of his essays and classic profiles. Whether he is detailing the unseen and sometimes quirky world of New York City or profiling Frank Sinatra, Talese captures his subjects - famous, infamous, or unusual - in his own inimitable and elegant fashion. These carefully crafted works create a portrait of an unforgettable individual, place, or moment, and give insight into the progression of a writer who is at the pinnacle of his craft.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Gaining Ground: History of Landmaking in Boston

Tue, Dec 2, 2003

Historian Nancy Seasholes gives us the first complete account of when, why, and how Boston's land was created. Fully one-sixth of Boston is built on made land. Although other waterfront cities also have substantial areas that are built on fill, Boston probably has more than any city in North America. Seasholes introduces findings from recent archeological investigations in Boston and relates landmaking to the major historical developments that shaped it. At the beginning of the 19th century, landmaking in Boston was spurred by the rapid growth that resulted from the burgeoning China Trade. The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-19th century prompted several large projects to create residential land (not for the Irish, but to keep the taxpaying Yankees from fleeing to the suburbs). Many landmaking projects were undertaken to cover tidal flats that had been polluted by raw sewage discharged directly on them, removing the "pestilential exhalations" thought to cause illness. Land also was added for port developments, public parks, and transportation facilities, including the largest landmaking project of all, the airport.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Defining the English Language

Thu, Jan 15, 2004

Jack Lynch, professor of English at Rutgers University, discusses Samuel Johnson's Dictionary. Two volumes thick and 2,300 pages long, Samuel Johnson's *Dictionary of the English Language,* published in 1755, marked a milestone in a language in desperate need of standards. No English dictionary before it had devoted so much space to everyday words and been so thorough in its definitions. Johnson's was the dictionary used by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Wordsworth and Coleridge, the Brontes and the Brownings, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. This new edition, created by Levenger Press, contains more than 3,100 selections from the original, including definitions and illustrative passages in their original spelling. Bristling with quotations, the dictionary offers memorable passages on subjects ranging from books and critics to dreams and ethics. It also features three new indexes created from entries in this edition.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Wood, Wind & Water: Nantucket Opera House Cup Race

Tue, Oct 7, 2003

Annie Converse and Camie Ford discuss their collaboration on the photographic essay *Wood, Wind and Water*, and the creative process that took years to complete. They familiarize the audience with the world of classic wooden yacht racing and restoration, which they have chronicled both in the book and in a 26-minute documentary video. The book, set in Nantucket, offers a rich, salty, and often humorous look at a global subculture glued together by a passion for classic wooden yachts. The video documentary follows many of the characters from the book to Antigua, where they race in the Antigua Classic Wooden Yacht Regatta. This race, in 1999, was the first time the J boats Shamrock V, Velsheda, and Endeavor had raced against one another since the 1930's. Much of the footage in the documentary is shot aboard Shamrock V.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
54th Regiment and the Color of War

Tue, Sep 30, 2003

Shakespeare & Company actress Susannah Melone portrays Annie Kneeland Haggerty Shaw in The Color of War, an original play adapted and directed by Shakespeare & Company artist Mary Guzzy. Shortly after marrying Annie Kneeland Haggerty, a young girl from a wealthy family in New York, Robert Gould Shaw took command of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the Union army's first all-black fighting regiment in the Civil War, and was ordered to active duty in the Carolinas. The Color of War is the story of their relationship told through the letters Robert wrote to Annie during their courtship and after they were married. This stage dramatization of Shaw's letters sheds light on the many professional and personal struggles he faced during this intriguing period in history.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Oath of a Surgeon Under Fire

Thu, Oct 23, 2003

Khassan Baiev discusses his experience as a doctor during the Russian-Chechen war. Little understood and largely ignored by the West, the Russian-Chechen war represents one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent memory, claiming upwards of 150,000 lives in the past 10 years. Dr. Khassan Baiev saw the worst of it as one of the few surgeons to remain behind after fighting began in 1994. *The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire* is his testament to the horrors of wartime and the first inside account to emerge by a native Chechen.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
George Stubbs: Reapers and Haymakers

Thu, Jan 22, 2004

Richard Wendorf attempts to show how scholars who have addressed the paintings of George Stubbs have missed the central point of his work as an artist. The painter George Stubbs is perhaps best known for his dramatic and painstakingly accurate portraits of English horse flesh. In this illustrated lecture, Wendorf draws attention to Stubbs' equally remarkable attempts to paint agricultural workers in the English countryside, particularly in his pair of images entitled Reapers and Haymakers. These iconic pictures have been the focus of intense debate by literary critics, art historians, and social historians during the past thirty years. Do they accurately depict the cleanliness, health, and vitality of common laborers in the 1780's and 1790's, or do they camouflage the desperate, post-enclosure conditions in which these workers toiled?

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum

Load More