Art historian Abaigeal Duda looks at the work of African-American artist Lucy Cleveland (1780-1866), whose textile sculptures provide a record of the abolition movement prior to and during the Civil War.

According to the WGBH website:

"Charles Hammond Gibson, Jr. (1874-1954) was a Boston writer and bachelor bon vivant, best known for having preserved his family's Beacon Street home as a museum of Victorian style and taste. The Wounded Eros, a short documentary film by Todd Gernes, explores the aesthetic relationship between Gibson's literary production and the material culture contexts of his museum and library, set within the social history of turn-of-the-century gay Boston. Following the film, a dramatic reading, These Four Walls: A History of a Romantic Friendship, directed by Jacqueline Romeo and featuring John Anderson and Aleksander Feliks Wierzbicki, will extend the exploration of Gibson's life by depicting his enduring relationship with the eccentric self-styled "Count" Maurice de Mauny Talvande."

A series of historians pays tribute to Arthur Schlesinger, special assistant to John F. Kennedy and Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian and biographer. Schlesinger is a guest on the panel.

Biographer and journalist Richard Reeves compares and contrasts the presidencies and legacies of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

Biographer Charles Calhoun looks at the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the society he encouraged and kept at his Craigie House, which included many major writers and intellectuals of the day.

The audio of this lecture is available independently as an mp3 file.

Author Lisa Alther talks about her work to trace her family genealogy and determine whether her ancestry includes any members of a perhaps-folkloric group of Tennessee residents called the "Melungeons." She talks about how people reconstruct their family trees, adding and omitting to create the history they wish to remember.

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.

As a part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Marshall Moriarty presents orator and statesman Daniel Webster (1782–1852); Representative Martha M. Walz presents activist Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880); and Daniel R. Coquillette presents sixth President of the U.S. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848).

As part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Jill Ker Conway discusses the work of maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1887–1976); Megan Marshall discusses Christian author and first female entrant to the Athenaeum, Hannah Adams (1755–1831); and Philip McFarland discusses historian Francis Parkman (1823–1893).

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American history website:

"Institute President James G. Basker examines early strains of abolitionism in eighteenth century literature. From John Newton, the slave trader-turned-minister who wrote the anti-slavery hymn 'Amazing Grace,' to black poets Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley, Basker argues that slavery was very much on the minds of eighteenth century writers and readers."