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.
Scholar Douglas L. Wilson examines Thomas Jefferson's life and his love of books. Wilson discusses Jefferson's personal library, which eventually became the foundation of the Library of Congress.
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 Lewis Dabney traces the life of Edmund Wilson (1895-1972), major literary critic of the 20th century. Dabney discusses Wilson's three classics of literary and intellectual history—Axel's Castle, To the Finland Station, and Patriotic Gore—and the many women with whom Wilson had rocky relationships.
Audio and video options are available.
Professor Richard L. Bushman reviews the life and character of Joseph Smith, Mormon prophet and founder, and explores Smith's New England roots.
Audio and video options are available.
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.
Professor Wayne Franklin discusses the life and work of James Fenimore Cooper, his inspiration for and work on the French and Indian War novel The Last of the Mohicans, and the influence of his depiction of this war on U.S. popular novels, works on the war, literature and on the colonial-era history of the U.S. Franklin also covers, in relation, the history of fiction-writing and novels in the U.S.
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 and author Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham discusses the creation of the book African American Lives, coedited with Henry Louis Gaters, Jr. The book covers the lives of over 600 notable African Americans, from earliest colonial times to the present day. Higginbotham examines the impact of these individuals on history, the challenges presented in choosing individuals for coverage, and the research required to compile the book.
Audio and video options are available.
Executive Director of the Museum of Afro-American History Beverly Morgan-Welch discusses the history of the Museum's meeting house and of the museum itself.