U.S. Booksellers for Free Expression president Christopher Finan looks at the importance of and struggle to defend freedom of speech and other civil liberties over the 20th century.
The lecture audio can be downloaded as an mp3.
Athenaeum program director and librarian Richard Wendorf looks back over the 200-year history of the Boston Athenaeum, using objects from the Athenaeum's collection to illustrate this history and focusing on points of change in that history.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson examines the contemporary popular perspectives on the Civil War, both of Northerners and Southerners, civilians and soldiers. McPherson uses the popular music of the period as a framework for discussing the changing views, and focuses on the growing desire to end the war and the increasing sense of hopelessness that it would ever end.
An audio version can be downloaded.
Author Jacqueline Tobin reexamines the history of the Underground Railroad, looking at the extension of the Railroad into Canada and the escape of fugitive slaves into Canada. She also examines the life of ex-slaves as free people in Canada.
Video and audio versions are available.
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.
Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis and Athenaeum librarian and program director Richard Wendorf discuss ownership of cultural property and the question of whether the Boston Athenaeum should have become the Boston Public Library. The presentation outlines the early history of the Athenaeum and the history of the debate over whether the institution should become a public library.
An mp3 version of the lecture is also available for download.
As a part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Marshall Moriarty presents orator and statesman Daniel Webster (17821852); Representative Martha M. Walz presents activist Lydia Maria Child (18021880); and Daniel R. Coquillette presents sixth President of the U.S. John Quincy Adams (17671848).
Author Zoe Trodd follows the history of protest literature in the United States, looking at its use in movements ranging from pre-Revolutionary War to the present day. The presentation also includes Adoyo Owuor reading the Emancipation Proclamation, Timothy Patrick McCarthy reading Eugene v. Debs Statement to the Court, John Stauffer displaying a collection of 20th-century protest photography, and Doric Wilson presenting excerpts from his play Street Theater.
An mp3 of the presentation may be downloaded.
Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections chief Mark Dimunation discusses a recently-completed project to reconstruct Thomas Jefferson's library—the library sold to the U.S. government to form the foundation of the Library of Congress. He deals with the history of the original collection, and what the collection reveals about Thomas Jefferson. The presentation includes slides.
The lecture audio can be downloaded separately.
Professor David Wilson introduces the life and times of Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1826-1868), an Irish-Canadian journalist, poet, politician, and critic of Irish republicanism. McGee lived in the United States from 1842 to 1845 and from 1848 to 1857.