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.
Author Mark Kurlansky reviews the history of New York City, using the perspective of the wildlife that once lived in the area as a framing device—particularly that of the eastern oyster.
The lecture audio is available separately for download.
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.
National Portrait Gallery curator Ellen Miles looks at painter Gilbert Stuart's 1796 portraits of George and Martha Washington, covering their creation by Stuart, Stuart's relationship with the presidential couple, and the impact and reception of the portraits since their creation. The presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
Professor Joyce E. Chaplin covers Benjamin Franklin's creation of one of the first accurate charts of the Atlantic Gulf Stream in 1768 and the history of scientific research in the British colonies, both by Franklin and other scientists, that allowed the creation of such a chart.
From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:
"Bureaucrats, University of Colorado professor of history Patricia Limerick argues, are often the most overlooked (at best) or reviled (at worst) of government officials, but they wield tremendous powers that shape Americans' daily lives. Nowhere is this more true than in the bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of the Interior. A wide-ranging agency charged with both protecting land and promoting its use, the Department of the Interior implements federal law over millions of acres of land and mediates the claims of environmental, mining, foresting, farming, and ranching interests, among others. Bureaucracies like the Department of the Interior may be boring, Limerick argues, but historians cannot ignore their impact on the development of the American West."
Fort Boonesborough was originally built in 1775 by Daniel Boone and his men to serve as a frontier outpost along the Kentucky River. Today, the fort has been completely reconstructed and functions as a living history museum, giving modern-day visitors a sense of what life was like for pioneers in Kentucky. In addition to the reconstructed fort, the park contains the Kentucky River Museum, which provides visitors with "insight into the lives of families who lived on the river and worked the locks and dams in the 1900s."
The park offers exhibits, tours for school groups, living history demonstrations, special school days throughout the year, and other educational and recreational events. The website offers visitor information, a photo gallery featuring 13 photographs of the park, and an events calendar.
The Zimmerman House Museum is located in East Multnomah County, Oregon. The home was purchased by the Zimmermans in 1869, and was donated to the Fairview Rockwood Historical Society in 1987 in order to serve as a historic house museum. The museum focuses primarily on the life and times of the residents of the home, and contains an impressive collection of thousands of artifacts.
The site offers basic visitor and historical information regarding the Zimmerman House Museum. The site is also part of the Fairview Rockwood Historical Society website, and so offers information about the society and their projects.
A panel of authors, urban planners, and politicians detail the history of Boston's Charles River Parklands, and discuss its possible future.
The Historical Museum of Southern Florida presents the history of South Florida and the Caribbean. The museum's permanent exhibit addresses Native American life, the international rivalry for dominance in the region, southward expansion and Seminole displacement, the development of technology and the region's economy, and immigration and tourism to South Florida. Consistent themes include ethnic diversity, immigration, and use of the natural environment.
The museum offers exhibits, summer camps, curriculum-based programs for students, historical site excursions for students, outreach programs for students, evening history programs, family programs, social and ecological history tours for adults, and research library and archive access. The website offers pre-visit materials.