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

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.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
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.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Esmeralda Santiago: The Turkish Lover

Thu, Oct 21, 2004

Esmeralda Santiago discusses her new book, *The Turkish Lover*, in which she describes finally breaking out of a monumental struggle with her powerful mother, only to come under the thrall of "the Turk" and discover that romantic passion, too, can become a prison. Esmeralda's journey of self-liberation and self-discovery is a daring one, candidly and zestfully recounted, and that leads, most improbably, to her triumphant graduation from Harvard University.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Role of the Academy and in American Art

Tue, Mar 29, 2005

The traditional art academies, first founded in Europe beginning in the late 17th century and in the United States just after the year 1800, played a vital role in the lives and careers of artists over three hundred years. Because they typically made drawing the basis for all art training and taught it under fairly strict control, academies fell from favor with the advent of modern art in the twentieth century. In the late twentieth century, however, and now into the twenty-first, more artists are paying attention to craft, and the practice of careful drawing is enjoying a huge resurgence. More and more artists are producing representational work, drawn and painted in a new, classically realistic style. In conjunction with the exhibition *Powerline: The Art of Leo Dee*, David Dearinger delivers an illustrated lecture about the role the formal art academy played in the development of American art. He will pay special attention to the history of one of the most important and enduring of these academies in this country: the National Academy of Design in New York, at Brooklyn College, Hunter College and for many years, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The Academy was founded in 1826, has hosted a lively art school, and has held annual exhibitions of contemporary American Art, almost without interruption, since its foundation. Dr. Dearinger reviews the history of the National Academy, discusses its important collection of American paintings and sculptures, and describes the role it played in the formation of both American artists and American art critics. David Dearinger is Susan Morse Hilles curator of paintings and cculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. An art historian and curator, he received his PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, with a specialty in nineteenth-century American art. 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.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
The White House: A Pop-Up Book

Tue, Mar 22, 2005

Starting with the design by Irish-born architect James Hoban in 1792, the White House history spans more than 200 years. In *The White House: A Pop-Up Book*, Chuck Fischer brings to life not only the architecture, furnishings, and fine art of America's First Home, but also the history of Washington, DC, the National Mall, and America's First Families. A movable diorama of the Mall gives a 3-D view of America's national monuments; a pop-up of the White House provides a look at the mansion's exterior; a standing "carousel" reveals interiors of the Red Room, Cross Hall, Blue Room, Green Room, and Lincoln Bedroom; a removable map of Washington, DC details the city's layout; and a gallery of the presidents combined with a fan that opens to portray the first ladies illustrates America's leading families over the centuries. In addition, numerous pull-outs and pop-ups surprise the reader with interesting details, such as holiday traditions at the White House and the antics of more than one White House child (roller skating across polished floors or bombarding a cabinet meeting with a toy cannon!). Chuck Fischer is one of the most talented and sought-after artists in America today and is the author and illustrator of the acclaimed *Great American Houses and Gardens: A Pop-Up Book* and *Wallcoverings: Applying the Language of Color and Pattern*, both published by Universe. His wallcovering and fabric designs are in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and he has recently been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Nature of Sacrifice: Biography of Charles Russell Lowell Jr.

Tue, Mar 22, 2005

The world advances by impossibilities achieved, Charles Lowell insisted in 1854 when, as valedictorian, he spoke at his Harvard graduation just two weeks after Boston had enforced the Fugitive Slave Law, returning Anthony Burns into slavery. Lowell argued that in the great march of mankind toward a greater humanity it was precisely those idealistic dreams of young men that marked human progress. His photographic memory and brilliant mind made him the brightest man of his generation. Spurning the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson to become a "mystic," Lowell began a career at the cutting edge of industrial innovation under the mentorship of the New York iron magnate Abram Hewitt. But the impossibility Lowell had in mind was not the miracle of industrial advancement that was sweeping the nation, but the abolition of slavery. Lowell volunteered in the Union Cavalry and in 1862 served on General McClellan's staff. In 1864 he joined the Cavalry Corps under Sheridan, commanding the Reserve Brigade. Carol Bundy's account of Lowell's war years, shadowed by the deaths of his brother, cousins, and friends, is unsparing in its depiction of his work in helping to form the fabled 54th Regiment of black volunteers, fighting Colonel Mosby's guerillas, implementing Grant's orders to destroy the Shenandoah Valley, and participating in the notorious Front Royal Affair, when Confederate prisoners were tortured and executed. Bundy's vivid biography, based on rich public archives and a wealth of family papers, shows in persuasive detail the antebellum Boston of Lowell's privileged childhood transformed by his father's unexpected bankruptcy and by the national controversy over slavery. An Athenaeum proprietor, Carol Bundy has written for film and art publications in both the UK and the US. She has two sons and lives in Cambridge. Bundy became interested in her great-great-great uncle, Charles Russell Lowell, when his worn saddle bags, rusted sword, and spurs turned up after her grandmother's death in 1983. Listen to a complementary [interview with Carol Bundy](http://thoughtcast.org/casts/carol-bundy-civil-war-biographer) on Thoughtcast.org, a podcast and public radio interview program on authors, academics and intellectuals.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Hudson River School of American Landscape Painting

Thu, Apr 14, 2005

David Dearinger, a curator at the Boston Athenaeum, lectures on history and technique of the the Hudson River School style of landscape painting. The Hudson River School resulted from the earliest attempts by American artists to find a truly "American" theme and style. It was born in the 1820s in the paintings of Thomas Cole and thrived through the 1850s in the work of Asher Durand, John Kensett, Sanford Gifford, Fitzhugh Lane, and Frederic Edwin Church. Dr Dearinger traces the birth and development of the style using key examples of paintings by these and other artists, gives an overview of the movement's historiography, discusses contemporary critical responses to it, and comments on the waning and eventual demise of the style in the 1870s. **David Dearinger** is Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. An art historian and curator, he received his PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, with a specialty in nineteenth-century American art. 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.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Unnoticed: Secret Life of Type Faces

Thu, Apr 28, 2005

Richard Wendorf explores the nature and history of the type faces by which we live, ranging from Roman capitals to the experimentation of William Morris at the Kelmscott Press. Typography is something that we encounter every day of our lives; it is one of the most pervasive elements in an entire spectrum of human activities. And yet typography is usually invisible or barely noticed; it is supposed to be transparent; it is not supposed to draw attention to itself. *The Secret Life of Type* is one of 10 essays collected together in Richard Wendorf's new book *The Scholar-Librarian: Books, Libraries, and the Visual Arts*, published by Oak Knoll Press and the Boston Athenaeum.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Stewart O'Nan's The Good Wife

Thu, Apr 7, 2005

Stewart O'Nan, author of The Speed Queen and A Prayer for the Dying, discusses his newest novel, The Good Wife. On a clear winter night in upstate New York, two young men break into a house believing it is empty. It isn't, and within minutes an old woman is dead and the house is in flames. Soon after, the men are caught by the police. Across the county, a phone rings in a darkened bedroom, waking a pregnant woman. It is her husband. He wants her to know that he and his friend have gotten themselves into a little trouble. So Patty Dickerson's old life ends and a strange new one begins. At once a love story and a portrait of a woman discovering her own strength, The Good Wife follows Patty through the twenty-eight years of her husband's incarceration as she raises her son, navigates a system that has no place for her, and braves the scorn of her community. Compassionate and unflinching, The Good Wife illuminates a marriage and a family tested to the limits of endurance.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum
Emma at Home: Lady Hamilton and Her "Attitudes"

Thu, Mar 31, 2005

John Wilton-Ely lectures on the effervescent and much celebrated performance artist, Lady Emma Hamilton, whose "attitudes" made her a phenomenon all across 18th century Europe. This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Royal Oak Foundation.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston Athenaeum

Load More