Study Tours

Join naturalist and tree expert Melanie Choukas-Bradley for a spring walking tour of the historic and botanically diverse trees of the U.S. Capitol Grounds and Arboretum. It’s a chance to admire D.C.’s many trees in verdant June foliage.

Join naturalist and tree expert Melanie Choukas-Bradley for a spring walking tour of the historic and botanically diverse trees of the U.S. Capitol Grounds and Arboretum. It’s a chance to admire D.C.’s many trees in verdant June foliage.

All aboard for an exciting three-day rail journey through West Virginia’s breathtaking mountain scenery led by railroad historian Joe Nevin.

Join naturalist and tree expert Melanie Choukas-Bradley for a spring walking tour of the historic and botanically diverse trees of the U.S. Capitol Grounds and Arboretum. It’s a chance to admire D.C.’s many trees in verdant June foliage.

Washington’s grand public museums aren’t the only places to see outstanding art. Visit two of the most interesting museums that reflect the tastes and visions of their founders when you spend a day exploring Glenstone in suburban Potomac and the venerable Phillips Collection with art historian Ursula Wolfman. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Spend a day with Liana Vitali, naturalist and educator, and other park volunteers exploring the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, a natural and cultural preserve along the Patuxent River less than 25 miles outside of Washington, D.C.

Enjoy the summer breezes at the 2022 outdoor edition of the nation’s largest and longest-running horticultural event, the Philadelphia Flower Show. This year’s theme, In Full Bloom, explores the restorative and healing power of nature and plants. Encounter gardens at the peak of seasonal perfection and beauty.

Spend a spring morning exploring the verdant wooded trails of Rock Creek Park with naturalist and author Melanie Choukas-Bradley. She surveys the park’s botanically diverse native trees, its rich history of the oldest urban national park in the country, and introduces the trail network that provides recreation for millions of local residents and visitors annually.

Spend a spring morning exploring the verdant wooded trails of Rock Creek Park with naturalist and author Melanie Choukas-Bradley. She surveys the park’s botanically diverse native trees, its rich history of the oldest urban national park in the country, and introduces the trail network that provides recreation for millions of local residents and visitors annually.

Spend a spring morning exploring the verdant wooded trails of Rock Creek Park with naturalist and author Melanie Choukas-Bradley. She surveys the park’s botanically diverse native trees, its rich history of the oldest urban national park in the country, and introduces the trail network that provides recreation for millions of local residents and visitors annually.

A single shot in Ford’s Theater on an April night in 1865 set off a dramatic chain of events, one of the most sensational of which was John Wilkes Booth’s flight from Washington. Civil War historian Gregg Clemmer traces his path from the District to Maryland to the Virginia barn where he met his death.

Join art historian Ursula Rehn Wolfman on a visit to Richmond’s Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to view Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France, which examines the rich variety of American painting in the advent of modernism as French avant-garde philosophies and styles melded with American individualism. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Splendid style is on the Manhattan itinerary when you take in fashion-focused exhibitions at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Met’s Costume Institute, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, led by design historian Elizabeth Lay. Even the tour’s hotel has style with participants staying at the Art Deco-era Hotel Edison in the heart of the Theater District.

Spend a day with sports historian Fred Frommer that celebrates the glory of the game D.C. style. Warm up with visits to two Smithsonian museums featuring baseball-themed exhibitions before the big home run, a private tour of Nationals Park.

The structures on the National Mall embody Washington, D.C, the Smithsonian, and America. Enjoy a morning walking tour led by lecturer Bill Keene and discover the Mall’s history, design, and architecture, from its earliest vision to the latest developments. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The geography and environment of the Mid-Atlantic was shaped over hundreds of millions of years, reflecting influences from a myriad of natural forces and at least 15,000 years of human habitation. Environmental historian and storyteller Hayden Mathews interprets the many layers of the region’s natural history as he leads a tour to three diverse sites in Calvert County, Maryland.

The structures on the National Mall embody Washington, D.C, the Smithsonian, and America. Enjoy a morning walking tour led by lecturer Bill Keene and discover the Mall’s history, design, and architecture, from its earliest vision to the latest developments. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The structures on the National Mall embody Washington, D.C, the Smithsonian, and America. Enjoy a morning walking tour led by lecturer Bill Keene and discover the Mall’s history, design, and architecture, from its earliest vision to the latest developments. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

At the turn of the 20th century, architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries turned Buffalo into a showcase for public and private architecture. A 4-day tour spotlights some of these innovative works with tour leader Bill Keene. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

The Badlands of North Dakota transformed Theodore Roosevelt over the course of more than three decades into the kind of vigorous outdoorsman he’d idealized as a youth—and that shaped his public image as president and a passionate conservationist. Experience those landscapes—filled with dramatic vistas, vividly colored canyons, and wandering herds of wild bison—on an extraordinary 5-day study tour.

A sparkle of gold flashed in a river near Coloma, California, touching off a massive wave of gold seekers to California. The Gold Rush of 1849 forever altered California and the nation’s destiny. A 6-day tour visits the places where the adventure unfolded.

Nashville is a 21st-century boom town, a cultural melting pot that attracts residents from across the nation and around the world. If the Ken Burns documentary Country Music sparked your appetite to learn more about the form’s roots and influences, this 5-day  tour offers the perfect way to do it.