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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

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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Seen But Not Heard: Images of Children in American Art

Tue, Nov 30, 2004

In conjunction with the Fall 2004 exhibition "Seen But Not Heard: Images of Children from the Collection of the Boston Athenaeum", David Dearinger surveys the manner in which children were depicted in 19th and early 20th century American art. Artists such as Winslow Homer, Lily Martin Spencer, George Caleb Bingham, J. G. Brown, Mary Cassatt, and Robert Henri are discussed in this illustrated lecture.

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Colossus of New York: City in 13 Parts

Thu, Oct 14, 2004

Colson Whitehead re-creates the exuberance, the chaos, the promise, and heartbreak of New York. *The Colossus of New York* captures the city's inner and outer landscapes in a series of vignettes, meditations, and personal memories. Conveying the feelings and thoughts of longtime residents and of newcomers who dream of making the city their home, of those who have conquered its challenges, and of those who struggle against its cruelties, *Colossus* is a portrait of life in the big city.

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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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Writer's Room Presents: LeHane, Mazur and Perrotta

Sat, Nov 6, 2004

Writers Gail Mazur, Tom Perrotta, and Dennis Lehane read from their current projects and discuss the New England authors who have been important to their work. This lively, entertaining, and thoroughly Bostonian discussion connects the city's literary past to the thriving writing community of today.

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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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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.

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