Spencer Crew, CEO of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and other presenters outline the lives of David Walker and Maria Stewart, African American Boston activists in the 1800s, as well as the lives and efforts of abolitionists generally and the history of the Underground Railroad.
Audio and video options are available.
Historian Charles Bahne covers the history of Cambridge's Brattle Street, an elegant Massachusetts residential thoroughfare and historic district. He treats the topic chronologically and looks at the buildings and residents that have occupied the street.
New England Victorian Society president Ed Gordon explores the history of Charlestown in the Victorian era, looking at the many Victorian structures that remain today. The presentation includes slides.
The lecture audio can be downloaded separately.
Professors Wlliam M. Newman and Wilfred E. Holton look at how environmental crises and urban crowding led to the massive project for filling Boston's Back Bay tidal marsh in the 19th century. The presentation includes slides.
The lecture audio can be downloaded separately.
As a part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, J. Frederick Marchant presents Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882); Jill McDonough presents Amy Lowell (1874-1925); and Rosanna Warren presents Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).
Scholar Nancy Seasholes looks at the history of land creation in Boston over its 375-year history. She focuses on the Central Waterfront area. Her presentation includes slides.
An mp3 of the lecture audio can be downloaded.
Writer Megan Marshall describes the lives of the Peabody sisters—Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia—three women who contributed to the Transcendental movement of the 1800s. Elizabeth worked as an educator; Sophia, eventual wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote, painted, and illustrated; and Mary also worked for reform. All had connections with major intellectual figures of this period.
This lecture's audio is available in mp3 format.
Professor Robert J. Allison reviews the history of Boston, focusing on major events and historical figures in the city's past.
Audio and video options are available.
Art historian and curator David Dearinger traces the birth and development of the Hudson River School of American landscape painting, beginning in 1820, using key examples of paintings; 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. His presentation includes slides.
A panel discusses the history of Chinese immigration and Chinese Americans and their experiences in Boston from the 1800s onwards.