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.

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.

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.

Author John Hanson Mitchell outlines his discovery of 2,000 antique glass plate negatives by a previously unknown 19th-century African-American landscape photographer, Robert Alexander Gilbert. Mitchell presents slides of Gilbert's work, and discusses what is known of Gilbert's life.

Associate director of the Boston Athenaeum John Lannon outlines the history of the Athenaeum, a leading research library founded in 1807 which houses notable artifacts from American history.

Author Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Sea of Glory, describes the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, in which six ships of explorers and scientists, commanded by Charles Wilkes, set out to explore the Pacific Ocean and eventually discovered Antarctica. Philbrick also covers the story of the whaling ship Essex's shipwreck and related shipwrecks, to lead into the story of the Exploring Expedition

Susan Wilson, author of Boston Sites and Insights: A Guide to Historical Landmarks, examines Boston landmarks, from the African Meeting House and the famously misunderstood Bunker Hill, to reveal the lesser-known stories and facts about them. Her presentation includes slides.