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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

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.

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After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World

Tue, Nov 8, 2005

The distinguished historian A.N. Wilson charts Britain's rise to world dominance. In his much anticipated sequel to the classic *The Victorians*, he describes how, in little more than a generation, Britain's power and influence in the world virtually dissolved. Wilson presents a panoramic view of an era, stretching from the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, to the dawn of the Cold War in the early 1950s. He offers riveting accounts of the savagery of World War I and the world-altering upheaval of the Communist Revolution and explains Britain's role in shaping the destiny of the Middle East, casting a new light on the World War II years. Wilson's perspective is not confined to the trenches of the battlefield and the halls of parliament: he also examines the parallel story of the beginnings of Modernism, looking at novelists, philosophers, poets, and painters to see what they reveal about the activities of the politicians, scientists, and generals. Blending military, political, social, and cultural history, A.N. Wilson offers an absorbing portrait of the decline of one of the world's great powers.

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Alanson B. Houghton: Ambassador of the New Era

Thu, Jan 26, 2006

Jeffrey J. Matthews provides a clear and concise account of Alanson B. Houghton's diplomatic experience during the 1920s, and consequently, a fresh assessment of US foreign policy during a pivotal decade in world history. Matthews explores why the United States failed to establish a stable world order during the New Era and additionally sheds light on the key historiographical themes of isolationism, new-imperialism, and corporations. American industrialist and politician Alanson B. Houghton, was the world's most influential diplomat during the "New Era" of the 1920s. Houghton, who served as ambassador to both Germany (1922 through 1925) and Great Britain (1925 through 1929), offers a unique window into the formation and implementation of American foreign policy. As the leading ambassador in Europe, he played a key role in the major diplomatic achievements of the era, including the Dawes Plan for reparations, the Locarno security treaties, and the Kellogg-Briand peace pact. While Houghton's significant contributions to these international accords are fully explored, the major theme of this book is his emergence as chief critic of US foreign policy within the Harding and Coolidge administrations.

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George Washington's God

Thu, Mar 9, 2006

Michael Novak, one of the country's leading conservative thinkers, offers the first in-depth look at the religious life of George Washington. Washington has long been viewed as the patron saint of secular government, but Novak's new book *Washington's God* reveals that it was Washington's strong faith in divine Providence that gave meaning and force to his monumental life. Narrowly escaping a British trap during the Battle of Brooklyn, Washington did not credit his survival to courage or tactical expertise; he blamed himself for marching his men into seemingly certain doom and marveled at the Providence that delivered them. Throughout his career, Washington remained convinced that America's liberty was dependent on faithfulness to God's will and trust in Providence. *Washington's God* shows him not only as a man of resource, strength, and virtue, but also as a man with deeply religious values. This new presentation of Washington will bring him into today's debates about the role of faith in government and will challenge much we thought we knew about the inner life of the father of our country.

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New York World: Graphic Art on Sunday (1898-1911)

Tue, Dec 6, 2005

Before the age of electronic media, Saturday morning television, and weekend getaways, there was Joseph Pulitzer's *New York World* newspaper. The Sunday edition in particular was a visual feast of color caricatures, full-page cartoons, disaster drawings, fictional illustrations, hand-lettered typography, weird science, halftone photographs, maps and more amidst the graphic, often muckraking news. For *The World on Sunday*, Baker and his coauthor and wife, Margaret Brentano, have selected 144 of the finest examples of period reporting, bold and playful graphic design, comic strips, and society pieces. Baker's introductory essay argues for the significance and beauty of Pulitzer's paper, and Brentano's detailed captions and notes accompany the colorful reproductions throughout the volume. Athenæum member Nicholson Baker has published seven novels and three works of nonfiction, including *Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper*, which won the National Book critics Circle Award for nonfiction in 2001. He is a regular contributor to *The New Yorker* and the *New York Review of Books*.

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Boston in 2030

Thu, Apr 20, 2006

Marc D. Draisen of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council asks what metro Boston will look like in 2030 if we continue to grow at our current rate. The MAPC's MetroFuture project, an initiative to develop a plan for metro Boston's growth and development through 2030, has involved more than 2,000 people, including municipal officials, residents, workers, community groups, and legislators. The MetroFuture team has integrated findings about the region into "Scenario 1: Current Trends Extended to 2030," which presents a likely picture of the region if current conditions persist. This has served as a starting point for discussions across metro Boston about such details as: where and how our population will live and work; how prepared they will be for the jobs of the future; the growing stress on our water resources; impacts on municipal budgets; and the dramatic increase in the elderly population in the region.

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Hip-Hop Culture, Politics, and Identities

Tue, Mar 28, 2006

Moderated by Isaiah Jackson, various panelists come together to discuss the politics, identities and cultures that have been emerging from the hip-hop movement. In its varied aspects, hip-hop embraces music, art, and dance. Emerging in the early 1970s from the African American and Latino communities of the Bronx, hip-hop culture has evolved into a creative force drawing an economically and culturally diverse international audience. Defying controversies and negative labels associated with hip-hop, artists and activists are increasingly collaborating to move hip-hop in the direction of greater political engagement and social responsibility. Today, hip-hop has the potential to serve as a positive agent for change at the community and national levels. Cosponsored by the Boston Athenaeum and The Partnership.

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Banjo-Wielding Women in Art

Tue, Sep 19, 2006

Anglo-female banjoists appear in myriad American paintings, photographs, illustrations, and advertisements from the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. Their presence is equally apparent, and yet more charged, in twentieth-century visual culture. The earlier artists often aligned the banjo with female achievement and enlightenment, yet the instrument was at best an ambiguous emblem of early twentieth-century New Womanhood, with any hint of feminist reform tempered by the literary, visual, and commercial contexts in which a bevy of increasingly coquettish banjo-wielding women appear. This talk traces that evolution, from Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, and Frances Benjamin Johnston to the contemporary muralist Margaret Kilgallen and the singing group Dixie Chicks where the instrument challenges male hegemonies in art and music. Leo G. Mazow is curator of American art at the Palmer Museum of Art at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is also affiliate associate professor of art history. He received his Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His essays and reviews have appeared in *American Art*, *Southern Cultures*, and *Railroad Heritage*. He has also written and edited several exhibition catalogues, including *Picturing the Banjo*, *Arneson and the Object*, and *George Inness: The 1880s and 1890s*.

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Nancy Lancaster: English Country House Style

Tue, Oct 10, 2006

Martin Wood explores Nancy Lancaster's substantial contribution to the arts of interior decoration and garden design. Nancy Lancaster (1897-1994) was one of the premier tastemakers of the 20th century and essentially created what is known as the English Country House Style, which emphasized a mixture of chintzes and antique furniture. The owner of Colefax and Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified this quintessentially English look, Lancaster had an assured sense of scale, boldness, a sharp wit, and an instinctive understanding of how to make a house mellow, elegant, and unpretentious. She carried the same clean elegance into the garden, where she worked in a formal yet romantic neo-Georgian style. Wood discusses Lancaster's houses and gardens including Mirador in Virginia; Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire, England; Ditchley Park, in Oxfordshire; and Haseley Court. He discusses Lancaster's remarkable personal life, her dynamic design partnership with John Fowler, and her interactions with friends, including her aunt Nancy Astor, Duff and Lady Diana Cooper, David Niven, and Winston Churchill. This illustrated lecture includes images of Lancaster, her houses, her gardens, and her friends by celebrated artists and photographers, including John Singer Sargent, Cecil Beaton, and Horst P. Horst. This lecture was cosponsored by the Royal Oak Foundation.

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Satyr Square: A Year, A Life in Rome

Thu, Oct 12, 2006

Leonard Barkan discusses *Satyr Square*, which is part memoir, part literary criticism, part culinary and aesthetic travelogue, and overall a poignant and hilarious narrative about an American professor spending a magical year in Rome. A scarred veteran of academic culture wars, Leonard Barkan is at first hungry, lonely, and uncertain of his intellectual mission. But soon he is appointed unofficial mascot of an eccentric community of gastronomes, becomes virtually bilingual, and falls in love. As the year progresses, he finds his voice as a writer, loses his lover, and returns definitively to America. His book is the celebration of a life lived in the uncanny spaces where art and real people intersect.

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