Donald Cann of the Boston Harbor Islands and John Galluzzo of the Massachusetts Audubon Society show the multiple uses of Boston Harbor by displaying a series of historical postcard images, from the Boston docks and shipyards to the amusement parks and summer playgrounds of the early 20th century.
The lecture audio is available independently as an mp3 file.
Joseph Garver, reference librarian of the Harvard Map Collection, displays maps of coastal Massachusetts from the 1600s to the 1930s and shows how cartographers have drawn the shoreline to suit their political and commercial goals. His presentation includes slides.
An audio version can be downloaded.
Athenaeum program director and librarian Richard Wendorf looks back over the 200-year history of the Boston Athenaeum, using objects from the Athenaeum's collection to illustrate this history and focusing on points of change in that history.
National Archives senior curator Stacey Bredhoff looks at the process involved in compiling the touring National Archives exhibit "Eyewitness," which focuses on eyewitness accounts of events from World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights' Movement's Bloody Sunday March at Selma.
Professor and author Michael Oren looks at the history of relations between the U.S. and the Middle East, beginning in 1785 with the Barbary Wars and continuing to the present day.
The lecture audio is also available as a mp3 file.
Joseph Cirincione, Senior Vice President of the Center for American Progress, discusses the history and future of nuclear weapons, looking particularly at nuclear weapons production in Iran.
Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis and Athenaeum librarian and program director Richard Wendorf discuss ownership of cultural property and the question of whether the Boston Athenaeum should have become the Boston Public Library. The presentation outlines the early history of the Athenaeum and the history of the debate over whether the institution should become a public library.
An mp3 version of the lecture is also available for download.
As part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Jill Ker Conway discusses the work of maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison (18871976); Megan Marshall discusses Christian author and first female entrant to the Athenaeum, Hannah Adams (17551831); and Philip McFarland discusses historian Francis Parkman (18231893).
Mount Auburn Cemetery president William Clendaniel reviews the 175-year history of Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery, the nation's first landscaped cemetery and a National Historic Landmark. This lecture includes visual aids.
The lecture's audio may be downloaded as an mp3.
Scholar Jeffrey Matthews explores the life of Alanson B. Houghton, American industrialist, politician, and diplomat (to Germany, 1922-1925, and to Great Britain, 1925-1929). Houghton uses this exploration to examine U.S. foreign policy between World War I and World War II, citing Houghton's criticism of policy under Presidents Harding and Coolidge.
Audio and video options are available.