It’s public program time again, beginning tomorrow! This season we have a wonderful variety of programs, including a book launch, a panel presentation of former Creative Artists and Writers Fellows to celebrate the program’s 20th anniversary, and reflections on the Revolutionary War era.
As always, public programs are open to the public and free of charge. Full descriptions of the programs and biographies of the speakers are also available.
We hope to see you at one or all of this fall’s lineup!
Thursday, October 8, at 7 p.m.
“Bancroft Heights: Catching the Spirit of the Place”
In collaboration with Preservation Worcester and the Worcester Historical Museum
Join us as we launch the newly published book Living at the City’s Green Edge: Bancroft Heights, A Planned Neighborhood in Worcester, Massachusetts by Susan McDaniel Ceccacci. This book tells the story of the turn-of-the-twentieth-century neighborhood surrounding Antiquarian Hall, how it developed, its architecture, and the influential families who have lived here over the past century. Those who first planted the seed for this lively neighborhood history and those who finally made it a reality tell what it took to put together this book.
Thursday, October 22, at 7 p.m.
The eleventh annual Robert C. Baron Lecture
“Looking Back at Women of the Republic”
By Linda K. Kerber
Each year the Baron Lecture brings a distinguished AAS member who has written a seminal work of history to Antiquarian Hall to reflect on the book’s impact on scholarship and society in the years since its first appearance. This year, Linda Kerber will discuss her 1980 book, Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America, which is a landmark study of American political thought and has transformed our understanding of the Revolutionary period.
Friday, October 23, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
“Twenty Years of Creative Artists in the Collections”
A panel presentation featuring Honorée Jeffers, Ann Lovett, and Stephen O’Connor
For twenty years AAS has offered fellowships to creative and performing artists and writers. Since 1995, 91 people working in all kinds of artistic disciplines from throughout the United States have come to the AAS library and conducted research for historical works designed for the general public. Join us for a panel presentation by a poet, a visual artist, and a fiction writer, who will describe their experiences as fellows, share samples of their works, and reflect on how history has shaped their artistic visions and their careers as professional artists.
Friday, October 23, at 5:30 p.m.
“Dispatches from the Front Lines: Maps and Views of the American Revolutionary Era”
By Richard H. Brown
In this illustrated lecture Richard Brown will examine rare and beautiful full color maps and images created on the scenes of battles from the French and Indian War through the American Revolution. This lecture is based upon the recently published book Revolution: Mapping the Road to American Independence, 1755-1788 by Richard H. Brown and Paul E. Cohen. Many of these maps have never been published before, some document decisive battles, and all provide visual energy and clarity to the Revolutionary Era.
Thursday, November 5, at 7 p.m.
“The Birth of the Liberty Tree”
By Robert J. Allison
What were the long-term consequences of Boston’s resistance to the Stamp Act? A broad mobilization of Bostonians demolished property and forced Crown officials to resign; the British government rescinded the law; and both sides felt they had averted a bigger crisis. But had they? We will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act with this lecture that examines the importance of the Stamp Act Crisis, both for those who lived through it and for future generations.
Tuesday, November 17, at 7 p.m.
“Creating Salem Lessons”
By Nicole Cooley and Maureen Cummins
In collaboration with ArtsWorcester
Two former AAS Creative and Performing Artist and Writers Fellows will return to discuss their collaborative project, Salem Lessons, a limited-edition artist book. Salem Lessons provides multiple perspectives on the experience of the Salem Witch trials of the 1690s. It features a “chorus of voices” of both accusers and executed that tell the story not only of what happened during that terrible time, but also—through images of copy-book pages kept by a Salem boy a century later—of the psychic reverberations that lasted long after the trials ended.
Friday, November 20, at 7 p.m.
“Representing Iconoclasm: Paint, Print, Performance”
By Wendy Bellion
This talk will explore nineteenth-century representations of colonial iconoclasm—such as the 1776 destruction of a statue of King George III in New York—and the re-performance of that action in civic pageants and parades, which often included ephemeral reproductions of the destroyed statue. This lecture is also serving as the keynote address for the CHAViC fall conference.
