Professor Robert E. Gilbert suggests that Calvin Coolidge's popularly perceived inertia during the presidency may have been caused by extreme depression. Gilbert examines Coolidge's life using the framework of tragedy and mental illness.
A panel of scholars reviews the landmark school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education and debates whether the case led to true improvement in the life conditions of African Americans.
A panel reviews the life, times, and memory of Robert F. Kennedy. Robert F. Kennedy's wife attends the panel as an audience member.
American Textile History Museum curator Karen Herbaugh looks at the sewing diaries of three New England women and one young girl, compiled in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She examines the history of fashion and fabric revealed by the diaries. This presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
Historian Dorris Fanelli discusses the site of the first presidential "White House" in Philadelphia and the discovery that George Washington brought many of his slaves to work there. This discovery led to a new kind of public history and the creation of a commemorative site near the Liberty Bell Center.
Ken Turino, exhibitions manager for the exhibit "Cherished Possessions," examines the history of New England furniture and decorative objects and the ways in which they were preserved and handed down over time. His presentation includes slides.
Video and audio options are available.
Nancy Carlisle, curator of the exhibit "Cherished Possessions," examines the history of New England furniture and decorative arts objects and the lives of the people who owned them. Carlisle covers objects and people from the 17th to the late 20th century. Her presentation includes slides.
Jan Turnquist, executive director of Orchard House, looks at the history of the Orchard House, childhood home of novelist Louisa May Alcott and her family. Turnquist describes the lives of each family member in detail. The presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
John Quincy, Jr., 11th-generation descendent of the New England Quincy family, traces the history of the family, a dominant force in area politics (the Boston mayorage passed from Quincy father to son for several generations).
Biographer and history professor James O'Toole describes the lives of the Healy brothers, children of a multiracial slave couple, in mid-19th-century East Coast society. Three of the brothers successfully passed as white and gained prominent social positions: one as a a bishop; one as Georgetown University's president; and one as a priest, rector, and seminary director.