According to the Library of Congress Webcasts site:

"Amanda Smith discussed her Patterson biography, Newspaper Titan: The Infamous Life and Monumental Times of Cissy Patterson. She was called the most powerful woman in America, surpassing first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman. Cissy Patterson was from a publishing family. Her grandfather was Joseph Medill—firebrand abolitionist, mayor of Chicago, editor-in-chief and principal owner of the Chicago Tribune, and one of the founders of the Republican Party, who delivered the crucial Ohio delegation to Abraham Lincoln at the convention of 1860. Cissy Patterson's brother, Joe Medill Patterson, started the New York Daily News. Her pedigree notwithstanding, Patterson did not come to publishing until shortly before her 49th birthday, in 1930, with almost no practical journalistic or editorial experience and a life out of the pages of Edith Wharton."

Book conservator Barbara Adams Hebard discusses the role of women in the history of the Boston Athenaeum, and Athenaeum associate director John Lannon discusses the 1999-2002 renovation of 10 1/2 Beacon Street.

Audio and video options are available.

Art historian Douglass Shand-Tucci details the life of Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942), designer of major works such as West Point, Princeton University, and Rice University. Shand-Tucci emphasizes Dram's diverse interests and endeavors, reaching far beyond architecture.

Producer Callie Crossley leads a panel of black journalists in a discussion on the power of the black press in social movements, beginning in the 1800s and continuing to the present day. The presentation includes an audio clip from the documentary Soldiers Without Swords.

Professor John W. Dawson explores the relationship between Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel during their years at Princeton University (1940-1955). He focuses on the contrasting personalities, revolutionary results, consonant worldviews, and confluent interests in the nature of time that underlay their bond of friendship.

Professor Ira Katznelson argues that U.S. government policies, beginning in the 1930s, favored white citizens over black citizens in practice, even if the policies' wordings were race-neutral. He discusses this in relation to affirmative-action policies favoring minorities today.

Audio and captioned video options are available.

Three World War II veterans share their stories of serving on PT Boats in the Solomon Islands at the same time as John F. Kennedy during World War II. (John F. Kennedy's PT Boat, PT-109, was struck and sunk in 1943.) The presentation includes film clips of the (now deceased) survivors of PT-109.

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.