Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Du Bois Institute at Harvard, discusses the African and African-American experience from W.E.B. Du Bois to John Coltrane in a comprehensive study, with an emphasis on Du Bois's concept of the "Encyclopedia Africana"—an encyclopedia of all Black culture and history—as a weapon against racism.
According to the WGBH website:
"Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. (1874-1954) was a Boston writer and bachelor bon vivant, best known for having preserved his family's Beacon Street home as a museum of Victorian style and taste. The Wounded Eros, a short documentary film by Todd Gernes, explores the aesthetic relationship between Gibson's literary production and the material culture contexts of his museum and library, set within the social history of turn-of-the-century gay Boston. Following the film, a dramatic reading, These Four Walls: A History of a Romantic Friendship, directed by Jacqueline Romeo and featuring John Anderson and Aleksander Feliks Wierzbicki, will extend the exploration of Gibson's life by depicting his enduring relationship with the eccentric self-styled "Count" Maurice de Mauny Talvande."
Survivors of the sinking of the World War II U.S. torpedo boat PT-109, commanded by John F. Kennedy in the Pacific, discuss their memories of their rescue and of JFK. Robert Ballard, maritime explorer, also discusses the expedition that discovered the remains of the PT-109.
Concluding the discussion and debate on Harry S. Truman's presidency began in the lecture "The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, Part One," Truman's grandson Daniel Clifton Truman narrates his memories of Harry S. Truman.
Video and audio options are available.
Following a short film on Harry S. Truman's pre-Presidency years, three panelists, including two university history professors and Truman's grandson, discuss and debate Truman's presidency and policies, partially in comparison to today's global political situation.
Video and audio options are available.
A series of historians pays tribute to Arthur Schlesinger, special assistant to John F. Kennedy and Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian and biographer. Schlesinger is a guest on the panel.
Professor Priscilla McMillan examines the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist and director of the Manhattan Project. McMillan focuses particularly on his post-World-War-II opposition to development of the hydrogen bomb, the 1954 trial in which his security clearance was revoked, and the context of these events at the beginning of the USSR-U.S. arms race.
Curator Sally Pierce and associate curator Catharina Slautterback review the history of the Boston Atheneaum's collections of prints and photographs, beginning with the Atheneaum's founding in 1807. They look at the contents of the collections; how the items were obtained, collected, and exhibited; and what they indicate about changes in tastes and available materials over time. The presentation includes slides.
The lecture's audio is also available for download.
World War II veteran Mary Ginnerty shares her personal memories of the war.
The audio of this oral history is available independently as a MP3 file.
A panel of historians and political analysts discuss the experiences and history of Irish and Jewish immigrants and their descendants in Boston. The panelists look at the current population of these ethnic groups in Boston, as well.
The discussion's audio can be downloaded in mp3 format.