The Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America info@vicsocny.org

VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA

Metropolitan Chapter Lectures 1967-2016

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2007-2016

2007
February 13 Bound for Freedom: Inventing the Underground Railroad in Nineteenth-Century New York – Fergus M. Bordewich author of “Bound for Canaan.”
March 13 Left Bank New York, Artists off Washington Square 1890s to 1920s – Virginia Budny, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
April 10 Fleas at the Metropolitan Opera: Scandal & Gossip in Victorian New York – Mark Caldwell, Professor of English, Fordham University and author of “A Short History of Rudeness.”
May 8 Aesthetic Evangelists: American Women & the Artistic Home – Karen Zukowski, independent scholar and author of “Creating the Artful Home.”
September 12 Henry Ward Beecher: The Most Famous Man in America – Debby Applegate, author of VSA Metropolitan Chapter Book Award & the Pulitzer Prize winning book “The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.”
October 9 True to Nature: Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand in the 1840s – Dr. Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum.
November 13 Asserting Yourself in Men’s Clothes: Cross-Dressing in the Comedies of Alice Guy Bache, the First Woman Filmmaker – Dr. Alison McMahan, author of “Alice Guy Blanche: Lost Cinematic Visionary.”
December 11 Schools of Design for Women in Late Nineteenth-Century New York – Margaret K. Hofer, Curator of Decorative Arts at the New-York Historical Society.

2008
February 12 The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse – Mindell Dubansky, preservation librarian of the Thomas J. Watson Library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
March 11 Women in the (Vaudeville) House – Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Curator of Exhibitions, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
April 8 Transmitting Beauties of Nature to Elements of Decoration: The Glass Gardens of Louis C. Tiffany – Lindsy Parrott, manager and curator of The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York City.
May 13 The Great War of the Architects; Religious Architecture in New York during the Victorian Period – Dr. Ronald J. Brown, teacher of history, ethnic studies, and political science at Touro College and world religions at Unification Theological Seminary.
September 9 Delectable Drinking: New York During the Golden Age of the Cocktail – David Wondrich, Ph.D., writer on cocktails for Esquire magazine and author of the award-winning book, Imbibe! (2007).
October 14 Heavenly Secrets: About Swedenborg and American Art – Bailey Van Hook, Ph.D. , professor of art history, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and author of Angels of Art: Women and Art in American Society, 1876-1918 (1997).
November 11 From Newport to the North Shore: Warren & Wetmore’s Architecture of Opulence – Peter Pennoyer, principal of Peter Pennoyer Architects, and Anne Walker, architectural historian at the Pennoyer firm, co-authors of The Architecture of Warren & Wetmore (2006).
December 9 “Gothamtide”—New York’s Contributions to Creating the Victorian Christmas – Sibyl McCormac Groff, NBC Rockefeller Center historian and tour guide whose research on Christmas customs has led to lectures, articles, appearances on TV as well as seasonal tours.

2009
February 10 The Horror of the Unadorned: Style and the Technology of Wallpaper Production in the Victorian Era – Robert Kaufmann, expert in the decorative arts with a Columbia University M.S. degree in Library Service.
March 10 The Cult of Velazquez: Victorian Artists and Spain – Paul Stirton, Senior Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor at the Bard Graduate Center in New York.
April 14 Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape – Thomas Rinaldi, co-author of Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape.
May 12 “A Nest for Dreaming, a Shelter for Imagining”: The Art, History and Architecture of F. Holland Day – Patricia Fanning, Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Sociology at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater,
September 8 Lockwood de Forest and the ‘Red Hot Iron’ of the East Indian Craft Revival Roberta A. Mayer, Ph.D., Massachusetts and volunteer archivist of the F. Holland Day Collection at the Norwood Historical Society.
October 13 The Panorama: Painting the “All Embracing” View Suzanne Wray, author, lecturer, and board member of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America
November 10 Florenz Ziegfeld, the Man Who Invented Show Business Ethan Mordden, author of Florenz Ziegfeld, the Man Who Invented Show Business (2008) and historian of music, theater, and film
December 8 Two Brothers, One North, One South David H. Jones, author of Two Brothers: One North, One South (2008), and American Civil War scholar

2010
February 9 The Row House Reborn – Andrew S. Dolkart, James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation and Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
March 9 American Expatriate Women in Gilded Age London – Jane Gabin, Ph.D. , writer and educator, author of American Women in Gilded Age London: Expatriates Rediscovered
April 13 Mechanical Marvels: Musical Boxes, Dancing Machines, and Automated Orchestras – Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier, Curator of the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection at the Morris Museum (Morristown, N.J.)
May 18 Inventing Entertainment: Sound and Film in the Age of Edison – Paul B. Israel, Ph.D. , Director and General Editor of the Thomas A. Edison papers at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
September 21 Gotham Lost and Found : Uncovering Manhattan’s Forgotten Cultural Landmark – David Freeland, historian, music journalist, author of Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure (NYU Press, 2009), and winner of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America 2010 Publication Award for Pop Culture and Entertainment.
October 12 Leopold Eidlitz: New York Architecture in the Gilded Age – Kate Holliday, architectural historian, Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas Arlington, author of Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age (W.W. Norton, 2008), and winner of a Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America 2009 Architectural Monograph Award.
November 9 Kevin Avery, associate curator in the Department of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and an adjunct professor in the Art Department of Hunter College, City University of New York.
December 14 Judith Major, Professor at the University of Kansas School of Architecture, Design, and Planning and author of To Live in the New World: AJ Downing and American Landscape Gardening.

2011
February 8 Across the Pond: Icons of English Arts and Crafts and American Interpretations – Brian D. Coleman, MD, is the author of fifteen books on the decorative arts, including Historic Arts & Crafts Homes of Great Britain,Extraordinary Interiors: Decorating with Architectural Salvage, Barry Dixon Interiors, Scalamandre: Luxurious Home Interiors, The Victorian Dining Room, and Classic Cottages.
March 8 Remembering the Triangle Fire: Memory, Memorial and Perpetual Revolution – Ruth Sergel’s films have aired on PBS and IFC. Her public art work includes Chalk, an annual commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire and Voices of 9.11. She is the founder of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition which won the Margot Gayle Award from the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America in 2010.
April 12 McKim, Mead & White.  Transmitters of the old to the New World! – Mosette Broderick, Ph.D is Director of the Historic and Sustainable Architecture MA program at NYU in London, the Urban Design and Architecture Studies Program in NYC and teaches architectural and urban history at NYU.  Her recent book is TRIUMVERATE published byAlfred A Knopf in the fall of 2010.
May 10 Gardens of the Victorian Era. Brian D. Coleman, M.D. is a practicing psychiatrist in Seattle, Washington.  Also an old house enthusiast, he has grown his love for restoration and design into an active second career.  He is the Editor-at-large for Old House Interiors magazine and has written numerous articles on home design for magazines ranging from “Old House Journal” to “Period Living” in the U.K.  Brian is the author of fifteen books including “Farrow & Ball: The Art of Color”, “Scalamandre”, “Window Dressings” and “The Intimate Garden” among others and most recently “Barry Dixon Inspirations”
September 13 Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy. Melissa Milgrom
October 11 The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States. Carla Yanni is Professor of Art History and Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Academic Affairs at Rutgers University. She specializes in 19th- and 20th-century architecture.
November 8 The Erotic Entanglements of the Pre-Raphaelites. Deborah Lutz, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture, at Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus. She is the author of Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism.
December 14 Peter Marie’s “Beauties of New York Society”. Margaret K. Hofer is Curator of Decorative Arts at the New-York Historical Society, where she has worked since 1993. Margi has curated numerous exhibitions on topics ranging from colonial carriages to Victorian board games.

2012
February 14 The Chair as Sculpture. Andrew VanStyn, designer and co-creator of The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Chair Design.
March 13 Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company. Barbara Veith, guest curator of the exhibition that comes to the Brooklyn Museum in May, 2012.
April 10 Queens Victorian. Dr. Eichenbaum is a professor of urban geography at Hunter College and an assessor for the NYC Department of Finance who leads geographically oriented historical tours of Queens.
May 8 The Design and Creation of American Stained Glass Windows Circa 1900. Donald Samick, owner and president of J&R Lamb Studios.

2013
January 20 Keeping the Stacks Intact: The Case for Preservation at the New York Public Library. Charles D. Warren, principal of the Manhattan firm Charles Warren Architect.
February 12 Grand Central Station. Anthony W. Robins, Formerly Deputy Director of Research and Director of Survey at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
March 12 The Life, Loves, and Scandals of Adah Isaacs Menken. Barbara Foster, Hunter College professor.
April 9 Nationalism and Science in theDecorative Arts at 19th-Century World’s Fairs. Ethan Robey is Assistant Professor of the History of Decorative Arts and Design at Parsons The New School for Design and the Associate Director of the Master’s Program in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, jointly run by Parsons and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
April 23 A High Victorian Legacy: The Rothschild Collection at Waddeson Manor. Lecture with Dr. Ulrich Leben, Associate Curator for the Furniture Collection, Waddesdon Manor. Reception and lecture sponsored by Mr. Christopher Forbes.
May 29 The Victorian Society New York 46th Annual Business Meeting. Held at New York School of Interior Design 170 East 70th Street.
September 10 Beyond Ladies’ Mile: A History of New York City Department Stores. Lecture with design historian Sarah Johnson.
October 3 Green-Wood Cemetery and the Transformation of Memorial Sculpture. Illustrated Lecture with Michele H. Bogart, Professor of Art History at Stony Brook University.
October 8 Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance. Jean Zimmerman author of Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance.
November 12 East in Eden: William Niblo and His Pleasure Garden of Yore. Lecture wtih Benjamin Feldman, author of two books and numerous journal articles.
December 10 The New York Music World of Antonín Dvorák, Jeannette Thurber and the National Conservatory of Music of America. Lecture with Majda Kallab Whitaker, independent scholar.

2014
NEW PROGRAM 21st-Century Victorian Scholars – 2014 Lecture Series with an exciting new program devoted to emerging scholars who focus on the Victorian era. The program offers several presentations of thesis topics by recent graduate students, with each presentation lasting 15-20 minutes.
January 27 Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs 1851-1939. Jason T. Busch, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Museum Programs, St. Louis Art Museum.
January 29
Gilded Age Guerilla: Edith Wharton’s Revolution in Literature and Architecture. Professor Richard Guy Wilson, the Commonwealth Professor’s Chair in Architectural History at the University of Virginia.
January 27 Victorian Summer Schools Event. Newport Summer School director Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor and chair of the Department of Architectural History at the University of Virginia
February 5 When Iridescence Met Incandescence: Thomas Edison and Louis Comfort Tiffany. Francis Morrone, architectural historian.
February 11 21st-Century Victorian Scholars. The program offers several presentations of thesis topics by recent graduate students, with each presentation lasting 15-20 minutes. Speakers and topics for our inaugural program include: Sarah Mallory, Michelle Jackson, Penny Wolfson (Author/Disability Studies scholar).
March 11 Millionaires and Military Men: The Seventh Regiment Armory Commission and Design. Chelsea Bruner, PhD CUNY Graduate Center and Victorian Society in America Summer School student, Newport 2010.
April 1 The Commodore’s Heirs: The Vanderbilt Dynasty and the Birth of the Gilded Age. T.J. Stiles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The First Tycoon (Vintage, 2010).
April 8 Harry Fenn, America’s Best-Known Landscape Illustrator, 1870-1895. Sue Rainey,author of the new book, Creating A World on Paper: Harry Fenn’s Career in Art, published by the University of Massachusetts Press.
April 16 Bill Cunningham’s New York. Exhibition of Bill Cunningham: Façades, and screening of Bill Cunningham New York, at the NY Historical Society.
May 13 Saratoga: Queen of the Country. Hollis Palmer is a renowned Victorian historian in Saratoga, and author of the award-winning See and Be Seen: Saratoga in the Victorian Era, published by Deep Roots Publications in 2011.
September 9 As American as Public Schools: The Legacy of Charles B.J. Snyder. Describing his career will be Jean Arrington, Ph.D., a professor of English at the City University of New York and mentor of teaching fellows at Long Island University.
October 14 William F. Mangels: Amusing the Masses on Coney Island and Beyond. Lecturer Jeff Richman, Green-Wood’s Historian, is the curator of William F. Mangels: Amusing the Masses on Coney Island and Beyond.
November 11 Victorian Exhibition Ceramics. Highlighting examples of these creations, is lecturer Ian Cox, director of the VSA London Summer Schools, professor of art history at the University of Glasgow and consultant to Royal Crown Derby.
December 9 The Gilded Stage: New York Theater in the late l9th Century. Lecturer Alex Roe is an actor, writer, teacher, set designer and since 2001 the artistic director of the Metropolitan Playhouse, VSNY’s 2014 awardee for performing arts.

2015
February 10 21st-Century Victorian Scholars. Speakers: Caroline Valdes-Lora, Amber Wingerson, Giovanna Sanchez.
March 10 Historic Preservation and Affordable Housing. Tenzing Chadotsang, deputy director of CHHAYA Community Development Corporation in Jackson Heights, Queens, and a VSNY Board member, will lead a discussion of the history of 19th- and 20th-century affordable housing with a panel of residents living in restored housing in New York City.
March 27 A Time of Contradictions: The Victorian Era in Charleston. Brandy S. Culp, the curator at Historic Charleston Foundation, will explore the stark contrast between the city’s cultural ethos before and after the Civil War.
April 14 Victorian Parlor Domes. John Whitenight, author of Under Glass: A Victorian Obsession, will discuss the decorative bell jars popular in 19th-century parlors.
May 12 Witnessing Light: Frederic and Isabel Church at Olana. Karen Zukowski, an independent writer and museum consultant who was the curator of Olana State Historic Site, currently serves on the board of The Olana Partnership.
June 3 The Victorian Society New York 48th Annual Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony
June 18 The Reach of the Landmarks Law: A Balancing Act Panel Discussion.
June 30 Late Modern/Post Modern Architecture: The New Frontier Panel Discussion
September 10 Sargent: Portraits Of Artists And Friends. Stephanie L. Herdrich is Assistant Research Curator in The American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and co-curator of the museum’s current exhibition of Sargent’s work.
October 8 Death In The Dining Room: Victorian Mourning Customs. Practices to honor the dead included special clothing and rituals, jewelry created from the deceased’s hair and postmortem photography. Karen Bachmann teaches jewelry history and design at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology
November 12 Gothic Revival and Anglo-American Literary Culture. Kerry Dean Carso is Associate Professor of Art History at SUNY New Paltz. Her book American Gothic Art and Architecture in the Age of Romantic Literature received the Victorian Society in America’s 2015 Henry-Russell Hitchcock Award.
December 10 Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America’s First Bohemians. Justin Martin is a journalist and historian who has written biographies of Alan Greenspan, Ralph Nader and Frederick Law Olmsted. In May, Martin’s Rebel Souls was honored with a Victorian Society New York book award for outstanding biography.

2016
February 4 THE OTHER TIFFANY GIRL: AGNES NORTHROP, DESIGNER OF WINDOWS By Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
February 11
EMERGING SCHOLARS: Bones of the Martyrs: (dis)remembering Paris by Kaylee P. Alexander, Duke University; The Ecclesiastical Figural Mosaics of the Tiffany Studios (1891–1931) by Natalie Zmuda, George Mason University in Partnership with Smithsonian Associates.
March 10 THE GENTLEMEN’S CLUB: AN INSIDE LOOK By Matt Postal, architectural historian and coauthor of The Guide to New York City Landmarks and Ten Architectural Walks in Manhattan.
April 21 STRUT: THE PEACOCK AND BEAUTY IN ART by Laura Vookles, Chief Curator of Collections at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers
May 12 EMPHEMERAL NEW YORK: HOW LIFE WAS LIVED IN THE GILDED-AGE CITY by Esther Crain, writer, editor, founder of the website Ephemeral New York and a native New Yorker
May 25 The Victorian Society New York 49th Annual Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony

September 8 Queen Anne Architecture: America’s Victorian Vernacular. American Queen Anne architecture had nothing to do with the 18th-century British monarch and everything to do with technology, particularly the ability to mass produce elements of buildings and to ship them around the country by railroad. Since the 2006 publication of her book, The Queen Anne House: America’s Victorian Vernacular, Janet W. Foster has continued to research the style. Although maligned by the architectural press, the Queen Anne style achieved immense popularity the United States and was adopted by important builders and designers at a time when architecture was emerging as a profession in this country.

October 13 What Remains of New York’s Gilded Age: Spanning the years after the Civil War through the beginning of the beginning of the 20th century, the Gilded Age was an era of incredible wealth, deep poverty, political corruption, invention, ingenuity and rapid social change. Esther Crain, author of The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910 (Black Dog & Leventhal/Hachette Book Group, 2016), will explore what day-to-day life was like for New Yorkers during this period. In doing so, she will draw on material gathered for her website Ephemeral New York. Focusing on some of what remains of the era in the city today—from an uptown mansion to a Lower East Side newsboys lodging house to an electric dress worn to a famous 1883 ball—she will shed light on the Gilded Age in all its glory, vice and excess.

November 10 The Dakota Apartments: The Dakota was the first truly luxury apartment house in New York when it was completed in 1884 at the 72nd Street entrance to Central Park. It went far beyond all prior multi-family buildings in providing grand accommodations and lavish amenities. Andrew Alpern, author of The Dakota: A History of the World’s Best-Known Apartment Building (Princeton Architectural Press, 2015) will explain how the building provided a practical way for wealthy New Yorkers to live well without having to shoulder the burdens of maintaining rowhouses.

December 15 Giuseppe Guidicini, New York Opera Houses and Theaters: In 1832 Giuseppe Guidicini, a scenic designer with an opera company, immigrated to New York from Italy. Over the next decades he became famous for his decoration of opera houses and theaters throughout the city, but he also created frescoes and trompe l’oeil paintings in private homes. Arlene Palmer Schwind, curator of Victoria Mansion in Portland, ME, will share her discoveries of his theatrical work. She began her research on Guidicini because he was the artist responsible for wall and ceiling paintings in Victoria Mansion, a private home completed in 1860.

1997-2006

1997
February 11 Travels in the Dining Room: 19 th Century Pictorial Plates and Souvenir Spoons – Kenneth L. Ames, chair of Academic Programs, Bard Graduate center
March 18 Mark Twain at Home: A Connecticut Yankee in the Gilded Age. Hartford’s Mark Twain House (1874) designed by Edward T. Potter, interiors added by Louis Comfort Tiffany and associates – John Boyer, Executive Director of the Mark Twain House
April 15 The Tenth Street Studio Building: Greenwich Village Building Designed by William Morris Hunt in 1857 – Annette Blaugrund, guest curator for the exhibition. Event co-sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
May 6 Frank Furness and the Quaker City – Michael J. Lewis, asst. professor of art history, Williams College. Event cosponsored by New York Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians

1998
February 5 Sanford White’s Last Triumph: The Payne Whitney House, 972 Fifth Avenue – Joni Sandberg, research asst. in American Decorative Arts dept., Metropolitan Museum

1999
January 19 Sir Merton Russell-Cotes: The Collector, the Collection,His House and His Times – Mark Stephen Bills of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, England
February 9 Flights of Fancy: Stuffed Birds and Interior Decoration in the Victorian Country House – Tim Knox, architect/historian for the National Trust of Britain
March 9 Oscar Wilde’s America: Counter-Culture in the Gilded Age – Mary Warner, author
April 13 The Arts and Crafts Garden: A Living Ideal – Richard Darke, author, lecturer, photographer
June 22 Mackintosh and John Ruskin – Dr. James Macauley at the English Speaking Union
September 14 The Furniture and Interiors of Leone Marcotte (1824-1877): The French Style in America – Nina Gray
September 27 Outside the Bungalow: America’s Arts and Crafts Garden – Paul Duchscherer
October 12 Oscar Wilde, Wilhelm von Gloeden and F. Holland Day: L’art Pour L’art and the Emergence of the Homosexual Species – Allen Ellenzweig, author and administrator of the French Center
November 16 John A. William Waterhouse: Painting His Way to the Top – Paul B. Trippi
December 7 The Plays of William Shakespeare by Sir John Gilbert: A British School of Athens – Malcolm Warner, Yale University

2000
January 18 Bewildered: The Origin and Future of Adirondack Great Camps – Dr. Michael Wilson, associate director of Sagamore Institute
February 15 Edward Lycett: An Anglo-American Potter – Barbara Veith, special projects assistant at Metropolitan Museum
March 14 A Light in Every Room: Changes in Domestic Lighting Technology in the 19 th Century – Mimi Sherman, instructor in the Folk Art Institute, Museum of American Folk Art
April 6 Eminently Victorian: The Royal Academy and its Artists During the Reign of Queen Victoria, at the National Academy of Design
September 12 From Artware to Tableware: Sir Walter Scott Lenox, Frank Holmes – Ellen Paul Denker, guest curator at the Dallas Museum of Art
October 10 Promoting the Past: Henry Sleeper Decorating and the Colonial Revival – Peter Aldrich Hayden
November 21 The Lady Vanishes: Female Impersonations and Changing Norms of Femininity (1900-1920) – Dr. Thomas A. Bolze, assistant to the president, NJ Historical Society
December 12 Father Knickerbocker Becomes Father Christmas: Washington Irving and the Winter Holidays – Kathleen Eagen Johnson

2001
February 13 A Coronation Portrait: Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully – Decarrie Rebura Barratt, assoc. curator American Paintings and Sculpture, Metropolitan Museum
March 13 The Glitter and the Gold: The Jewelry Industry in Newark – Jane Zapata, jeweler
April 17 The Shipcarvers Art: Figure Carving in 19 th Century America – Dr. Ralph Sessions, independent aviator/historian
May 15 The Meck’s Family Tradition: Three Generations of Cabinet Makers – Jodi A. Pollock, Sotheby’s, NY
September 11 Candace Wheeler: Creating the Professional Woman Designer – Amelia Peck (Note: lecture cancelled – rescheduled for 2002)
October 16 In the Hollow of his Hand: The overlay of the Romantic on a Hudson Valley Farm – Leila Philip, author, asst. prof. Colgate University
November 13 The International Tile Company: An English Business Venture in Brooklyn –Susan I. Padwee
December 11 With Real Views: Landscape as American Furniture Decoration (1810-1890) – Cynthia Van Allen Schaffner, furniture historian/author

2003
February 11 Reviving a Revival: Victorian Ceramic Wall and Floor Tiles: Their History, Utility and Restoration – David Malkin, author
March 13 More than Bricks and Mortar: Public Libraries and greater New York (1890-1920) – Jeffrey Kroessler, author
April 6 Helen Madjeska: Queen of Dramatic Art – Sally Buckman Kinsey, prof. emeritus, Syracuse University
May 6 The Corset – Valerie Steele, Fashion Institute of Technology
September 9 Out of this World: Playfulness and Charm in Early Tearooms: Jan Whitaker, author
October 7 The Allure and Mystique of Victorian Jewelry: A Survey of Treasures from the Gilded Age – Robert Mark Bunda
November 4 Barnard College and the Architecture of Women’s Education – Andrew Scott Dolkart, assoc. prof. Historic Preservation, Columbia U.
December 9 The New Negro and 19 th Century American Art – Margaret Vandryes, assoc. prof. CUNY Graduate School

2004
September 14 Andrew Haskell Green: Gotham’s Forgotten City Builder – Michael Miscione
October 19 Avast! Stranger: Do not read this Book: The Journal of Black Sailor Charles Benson – Dr. Michael Sukolow, lecturer and documentary film producer
November 2 The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in 19 th Century New York – Dr. Amy Srebnick, professor of History, Montclair State College
December 7 The Country Estate of Arts and Crafts: Utopia, the Byrdcliffe Colony Experiment – Cheryl Robertson, curator and museum consultant
September 13 Is Mr. Ruskin Living Too Long? – Paul Stirton, senior lecturer in art and fellow of the Center for Whistler Studies, University of Glasgow, and author of ‘Is Mr. Ruskin Living Too Long?: Selected Writings of E.W. Godwin on Victorian Architecture, Design and Culture”
October 11 Inventing the New York Skyscraper – Sara Bradford Landau, professor of art history, New York University, co-author of Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865-1913; commissioner, New York City Landmarks Commission 1987-1996
November 8 Victorian Television – Greg Dinkins and the New York Stereoscopic Society
December 13 Oscar Wilde in New York – John Cooper, contributor to the Oscar Wilde academic journal Oscholars; moderator of Yahoo’s Oscar Wilde Internet Discussion Group; business manager, Victorian Society of America

2006
February 14 Raving Reviewers: Art Critics in Antebellum America – David Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Boston Athanaeum
March 14 The Devil’s Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America – Barnet Schecter, author
April 11 A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement – Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio, decorative arts curator, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
May 9 The Ansonia – Lori Zabar, research assistant, The American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art
September 12. Flouting Convention: The New American Woman in Nineteenth-Century American Art – Mary Kate O’Hare, Assistant Curator of American Art, Newark Museum.
October 10. Brooklyn’s Civil War Monuments – Elmer Sprague, Professor Emeritus Brooklyn College.
November 15. Boss Tweed: The Ultimate New Yorker – Kenneth Ackerman, author of “Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol who conceived the Soul of Modern New York.”
December 12. The Cooper Union Building and Architectural Terra Cotta in the 1850s – Jay Shockley, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and Susan Tunick, President, Friends of Terra Cotta.

1987-1996

1987
October 11 Ornament Seminar – hosted by Mr. & Mrs. David Emerick (Forbes donation)
October 19 Daughters of Painted Ladies: America’s Resplendent Victorians – Elizabeth Pomada, Michael Larsen

1988
March 28 Flowers and the Flower Garden: Literary Attitudes and Literal Realities – Karen Zukowski (CUNY)
April 19 Pathos and Poverty: A Preview of 2 Victorian Exhibitions at theYale Center for British Art – Susan Casteras, assistant curator
September 26 Design Reform in Late 19 th Century America – Catherine Voorsanger
October 31 Graces and Muses: Classical and Esthetic Painting in Victorian England – Stephen Jones, Director of Leighton House, London
November 17 Frank Lloyd Wright: The Victorian Years – David Garrard Lowe, NY School of Interior Design
Nov.19-20 Victorian Christmas Ornaments – Jana Emerick

1989
January 10 Ogden Codman and the Decoration of Houses – at the National Academy of Design, Pauline Metcalf, curator
January 23 Indians in American Art of the Victorian Era – Dr. Marvin D. Schwartz
February 21 From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1817-1877 – at the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum, Caroline Goldthorpe
February 27 Victorian India – Christopher Noey of Radio & TV division, Metropolitan Museum
March 27 John Ruskin’s Influence on American Architecture – Michael W. Brooks, professor of English, West Chester University
April 17 The Wagnerian Esthetic as the Victorian Aesthetic – Robert Gutman, former dean of Graduate School of technology
September 12 Greek Revival, Biedermeier or What?: International Classicism 1810-1840 – Dr. Marvin Schwartz
October 30 Woodlawn Cemetery: A Medley of Victorian Styles – Dr. Edward Bergman, Lehman College
November 27 19 th Century Traveler – Gabriella Canfield
November 30 Exhibit of A.J. David and American Classicism –p at Federal Hall National Museum, 20 Wall St., New York
December 5 120 th Anniversary of Church of Incarnation – benefit celebration at the Church. Interested public invited

1990
January 29 Chicago Trends: Late 19 th Century Architecture – Jeffrey Sholeen
February 26 The Sidelong Glance: Victorian Americans and Baroque Rome – William Vance
March 5 A Meeting to Celebrate theRestoration of St. Gaudens’ General Sherman – Jean Wiart, Timothy Marshall, Edward N. Ames
March 26 Richard Morris Hunt and the Search for Grandeur – David Garrand Lowe
April 19 Wall Street: Changing Fortunes – Maxine Friedman
April 30 Florence Griswold and the Old Lyme Impressionists – Charles Clark
May 8 Manhattan’s Grand Plaza (its history, and the Sherman Monument and the Pulitzer Fountain) – viewing the exhibition at the New York School of Interior Design
November 1 Marble Halls and Marbled Busts: An Evening in honor of Mr. Anthony Trollope – at the National Arts Club
November 5 Countrymen and Connoisseurs – Dudley Dodd at the Abigail Adams Smith Museum of Adornment
Nov.10-11 symposium on The Bizarre and the Beautiful – the Victorian Society and the Costume Society of America
November 26 Trends in 19 th Century Design – Dr. Marvin S. Schwartz

1991
February 6 Mysticism and Spiritualism in American Arts and Crafts: Tiffany’s Laurelton Hall – Richard Guy Wilson at Forbes Magazine Galleries
March 18 The Pre-Raphaelites in Art and Literature – Susie Mee
April 6 Dining in Victorian America: a Symposium on 19 th Century Customs – at Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia
April 23 Life in the Irish Country House – John R. Redmill

1992
January 14 The restoration of the McKim, Meade and White Stair Hall (1882-1884) – Peter Kenny, asst. curator of American decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum
February 16 The Domestic Museum in Manhattan: Major Private Installations in New York City (1870-1920) – William S. Pryres
February 27 Historical Photographs: the Archives of Roger-Vifortes – at the Gallery of the New York School of Interior Design
March 16 From Living Halls to Living Rooms: Planning and Room Uses in the American Country House 1890-1940 – Prof. Mark Alan Hewitt at Montclair NJ Women’s Club
March 23 Nationalistic Trends in Late 19 th Century Keyboard Music – Paul Verona
April 20 Jasper Cropsy: The Lure of Italy – Gigi Wilmers
May 23 Presentation of the Landmarks Lion Award (ceremony and reception) – Historic District Counci
October 13 Limoges Porcelain: The 19 th Century – Susan Sittler
November 4 The Grand Canal (illustrated lectures) – 3 lectures at the gallery of the New York School of Interior Design
November 21 Symposium: Gospels of the American Interiors 1840-1920: Publications for the House in Good Taste, Seventh Regiment Armory – Wendell Garrett, Joseph T. Butler, Marianne Curling, Richard Guy Wilson, Pauline Metcalf, Durwood Potter, Lisa Weilbacker
December 15 Bugatti in Context – Henry H. Hawley (artistic milieu of Northern Italy, late 19 th century

1994
September 13 Reinterpreting the Newark Museum’s Ballantine House: Making a New Home for the Decorative Arts – Ulysses G. Dietz, curator
October 18 America Around 1900: Impressionist and realist depiction of Modern Life – Mishoe Brennecke, research associate of American Painting at the Metropolitan Museum
November 15 A House Full of Rooms: Architecture, Interiors and Gardens in the Life and Work of Edith Wharton – Theresa Craig

1995
January 24 The Japanese Influence in Late 19 th Century Interiors – Cheryl Robertson, curator of Decorative Arts, Milwaukee Art Museum
April 18 Napoleonic Bedrooms – Anne-Marie Quette, lecturer, Musee de Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and professor of the Cooper-Hewitt Graduate Program
May 16 To Augment Metropolitan Museum Exhibition of Herter Brothers, California, work, Fernside from the A.AS. Cohen Home, San Francisco old Knob Hill: Friendships, Feuds, Interiors and Art Work – Alex Brammer, writer and world lecturer on 19 th Century Art
September 19 Meiji Revisited: The Sites of Victorian Japan (1868-1912) – Dallas Finn, author
September 24 Ruskin’s Heritage in England and in America (1819-1900) – Michael Wheeler, professor of English at Lancaster University, England
October 10 Burlissun-Grylls and the Late Gothic Revival in Stained Glass – Martin Harrison, author
October 15 Palaces of Art: The Pre-Raphaelites at Home – home and studio environments of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his disciples Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris – Stephen Calloway, assoc. curator of paintings, Victoria and Albert Museum
November 12 Eating Out: The Tea Rooms of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Kate Cranston commissioned Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald to design a series of “artistic” tea rooms in Glasgow – Alan Crawford, Architectural Historian
November 14 August Walby Northmore Pugin and the Origin of the Gothic Revival – Paul Atterby
December 12 Aesthetic Assemblages: Shelburne Farms and Shelburne Museum – Elliot Davis, asst. curator at Metropolitan Museum will speak on the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT

1996
February 6 Gathering Up the Fragments that remain: Southern Garden Clubs and the Publication of Southern Garden History – David Foard Hood, private consultant in garden history
March 19 A Plethora of Pots: Victorian Ceramics in Great Britain – Ian Cox, director of the Christie’s Decorative Arts Program at Glasgow University
April 16 The Willows: A Cottage Home in Gothic Style – Cynthia Sanford, curator of The Willows, NJ
May 14 Adah Isaacs Menkin: The First Broadway Star – Barbara Foster, faculty member, Hunter College, New York
September 23 Gilded Ambition: Richard Morris Hunt and the Vanderbilts – Laurie Ossman, curator of Ca d’Zan, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL
October 14 All God’s Children Got Shoes: 19 th Century Emancipation Clothing of Enslaved and Free Black Peoples in the United States – Michelle Black Smith, curator
November 4 Bright Lights, Bi City: The Lighting and Metalwork of E.F. Caldwell & Co. 1895-1935 – Jeni Sandberg, research asst. at Metropolitan Museum

1977-1986

1979
November 8 Alice Austen’s 19 th Century Photographs – Ann Novotny

1981
April 9 Riding the Crest in Victorian Amusement Park Design, or Going for Baroque at the Seashore – Frederick Fried

1983
Mar19-June19 The Great East River Bridge: 1883-1983 – Brooklyn Museum of Art
May 10 Building the Brooklyn Bridge – at the Museum of the City of New York
November 20 Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) founder of the Guild of Handicraft – Felicity Ashbee, his daughter, at the bookshop and gallery of John H. Stubbs

1984
February 15 American Porcelain: 19 th Century American Decorative Arts – David Lane and Edith Wharton. – Alice C. Frelinghuysen, asst. director American decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum

1985
January 14 Majolica: A Victorian Expression in Ceramics – Jean Callan King

1986
January 25 The Heroic Age of Sculpture: the American Image in the 19th Century – symposium at New York Genealogical and Biographical Society

1967-1976

1967
March 29 A Victorian House in William Morris Style (Whitewick Manor in Warwickshire) – Lady Mather
April 28 The Cape Horn Ship (a film) – Captain Alan Villiers
April 28 Aspects of American Victorian Painting – Louis James
October 6 The Gothic Revival – R. Fumeaux Jordan

1968
March 5-14 The Bampton Lectures in America (20 th annual series) at Horace Mann
Auditorium, sponsored by Columbia University
March 5 – The Evolution of Victorian Architecture
March 7 – The Victorian Railway System
March 12–The Victorian Churches
March 14– A Victorian Competition
March 15 The Art of Unnecessary Architecture in the Age of Victoria – Dr. George B. Tatum
March 27 The Victorian Brownstone House – Charles Lauriston Livingston
May 23 The Significance of Cast-Iron Buildings – Prof. Weisman, Dr. Chester Rapkin and John G. Waite Jr.

1969
March 7 Three Victorian Innovations – Paxton, Roebling, Eiffel – John Marston Fitch
March 21 The Early Days of Photography – Daguerre in the London Exhibit of 1851 – Beaumont Newhall
June 7 The Great House in America at the Lockwood Matthews Mansion in Norwood, CT
September 25 Louis C. Tiffany: Rebel in Glass – Robert Koch
October 24 Hector Goimard: Art Nouveau in Paris – F. Lanier Graham
October 24 The Styles of Gaudi – Prof. George R. Collins

1970
March 19 William Morris – Sir. Nicholas Pevsner
September 25 The Colonial Revival in America. –W. Knight Sturges, AIA

1971
January 22 The Japanese Influence in Victorian Times – Clay Lancaster
March 5 An Evening with James Renwick Jr. – Selma Rattner and Jay Cantor
March 6 The Hudson River School Painter – Frederic Edwin Church and his Famous Home Olana – David Carew Huntington
May 26 & 29 19th Century American Ceramic and Glass – Marvin D. Schwartz
June 9-12 19 th century American Silver – Marvin D. Schwartz
September 30 Classical American Architecture and Civic Art in the Victorian Age – Henry Hope Reed
October 4 The Pleasures and Pitfalls of 19 th century English Pottery and Porcelain – John Cushion
November 15 Reform and the Quest for Innovation in 19 th Century Design – Marvin D. Schwartz

1972
January 13 19th century Furniture of Philadelphia – David A. Hanks
January 20 American Sculpture and the Protestant Cemetery in Rome – William Gerdts
Feb.16-Apr.26 Vanishing New York – a course given at NYU Continuing Ed.
Feb.20-May 25 Architecture USA – a course given by Alan Burnham at New School for Social Research
April 19 Irish 19th Century Architecture – John O’Gallaghan
September 24 Daniel Chester French: His Relief Sculpture – Michael Richman
October 12 Victorian Pride in Objects as Seen Through 19 th Century Photography – Thomas J. Barrow
November 9 John Laureate: Laureate of Home – David H. Wallace
November 15 William Butterfield: A Reappraisal – Paul Thompson
December 27 Classical Town Planning – Christopher Tunward

1973
January 11 The Early Work of Stanford White – Lawrence Wodehouse
January 18 The T-Square and the brush (architecture looked at by a painter) – Peter Rice III
February 8 Pre-Raphaelite Painting – John Barrington Bayley
February 8 H.H. Richardson: Victorian Architect – Henry-Russell Hitchcock at the Metropolitan Museum
March 1 Friends of Cast-Iron Architecture – Malcolm Higgs
March 22 Victorian Architecture in Princeton NJ – Constance Greiff
April 4 Classical America – Edgar Munhall
April 24 Victorians in Togas (exhibition of Alma Tadfemas) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – Everett Fahy and Christopher Forbes
October 16 August Saint: Gardens in New York City – Lawrence Wodehouse

1974
January 11 Woodward East Detroit – Michael Frank
January 17 The Quilters’ World – Elizabeth Ann Coleman
March 5 New York’s West Side: Row Houses for the Prosperous – Susan B. Landau
March 7 Ornamentation of iron Structures – Henry-Russell Hitchcock
March 14 Victorian Engineers in Great Britain – Eric N. DeLony
April 5 William Burges and the High Victorian Dream – J. Nordaunt Crock
May 29 Edouard Colonna: Before Art Nouveau – Martin Eidelberg
July 14-19 Victorian Boston: English Architecture in the Late 19 th century – Radcliff Institute (summer) and Harvard University Alumni
September 24 Daniel Chester French: His relief Sculpture – Michael Richman
October 25 The Crystal Palace: a symposium and exhibition at New York University and the Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America – Chairman Henry-Russell Hitchcock

1975
January 16 The First Hundred years – 1776-1886
January 17 Victorian Country Houses of Britain – Samuel J. Dornsife (Grolier Club)
January 17 The Quilters World – Elizabeth Ann Coleman
January 29 The Golden Age of Horticulture (19 th Century) – Carlton B. Lees
February 10 Photographs in America at the Time of the centennial – Neston J. Neef
March 6 The restoration of 2 Historic Iron-Front Buildings – Steven T. Baird
March 7 Three Victorian Innovators: Paxton, Roebling and Eiffel – James Marston Fitch
March 15 Iron-Front Buildings – Steven T. Baird
March 20 Landmarks: New York’s Endangered Species: The Tweed Courthouse – Brian MacMahon; The A.T. Stewart Department Store – Margot Gayle; The Association residence for Women – James Lapine; The Municipal Asphalt Plant – George Murphy; Grand Central Station – Kent Barwick
March 21 Victorian Furniture – J. Stewart Johnson
April 22 The Outdoor Sculpture in Washington DC – James M. Goode (at CCNY Graduate School
April 25 Victorian Furniture: Eclectic and original – J. Stewart Johnson
October 23 Bicentennial Retrospective at the Central Synagogue – Henry- Russell Hitchcock
November 17 Revealed Masters: 19 th Century American Art – Pearl Throw at the Newark Museum

1976
January 29 Golden Sage of Horticulture: the 19 th Century – Carleton B. Lees
February 10 Photography in America at the Time of the Centennial – Weston J. Naef
March 4 Central Parks’ Historic Cast-Iron Bridges – Joseph Bresnan and Joseph Bebger
March 22 How to Succeed in Business by Really Trying – Robert Riley
Sept.10-11 Gardening Centennial in America (autumn symposium) held at the Athenaeum in Philadelphia

The Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America