Book conservator Barbara Adams Hebard discusses the role of women in the history of the Boston Athenaeum, and Athenaeum associate director John Lannon discusses the 1999-2002 renovation of 10 1/2 Beacon Street.

Audio and video options are available.

A panel of prominent Massachusetts politicians reads from the letters of John and Abigail Adams.

Producer Elizabeth Deane presents a "sneak preview" of her documentary American Experience: John and Abigail Adams, detailing the development of the relationship between the two, as revealed in their correspondence. The preview is followed by a panel discussion.

Audio and video options are available. The video is captioned, and a transcript is also provided.

Producer Callie Crossley leads a panel of black journalists in a discussion on the power of the black press in social movements, beginning in the 1800s and continuing to the present day. The presentation includes an audio clip from the documentary Soldiers Without Swords.

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.

Boston Historical Society editor Helen R. Deese discusses the 45-volume diary of Boston Transcendentalist, feminist, writer, and reformer Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912). Deese focuses on the thorough, extensive picture of the life of a 19th-century woman that the diaries represent.

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.

Preservation consultant Pamela Wilkinson Fox discusses historic country houses and mansions outlying the Boston area. Fox follows the trend of the rich and famous building country homes and communities along Massachusett's North Shore (Essex County), beginning in the 19th century. Her presentation includes slides.

Audio and video options are available.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning author David McCullough talks about his book 1776, which covers the year 1776 in American history, and the corresponding Revolutionary War events. He particularly focuses on his research while writing the book.