All upcoming Lectures

Mary Todd Lincoln and Varina Banks Howell Davis experienced 19th-century political life at its highest levels. They shared similarities, as each was Southern-born, well-educated, a gifted conversationalist, and a mother of young children. Both had their fair share of critics during their husbands’ time in office, and neither woman was one to sit back quietly. Each survived her husband and sought to preserve his memory—and dealt with the numerous challenges in the war’s aftermath in her own way. Kelly Hancock of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond examines the reasons.

Thousands of years ago, Indigenous peoples in the Andes assessed their climate, geography, and ecology and realized that, to provide better support for agriculture and herding, they needed to harness water. Their solution was to build hydraulic infrastructure, such as canals, terraces, reservoirs, and dams. Archaeologist Kevin Lane reveals the story of canals on the coast and in the Central Andes and explains how these old technologies are being repurposed today to deal with the effects of climate change.

Before Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia invaded the North in 1862, it battled Union forces in the Second Manassas campaign. Civil War tour guide Marc Thompson analyzes the army’s movement from Richmond toward Manassas following the Seven Days Battles and explains how the evolving nature of the Civil War can be seen through the fielding of two kinds of Federal armies in response to the threat posed by Lee’s Confederates.

Since its opening in 2002, the kitchen from Julia Child’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been a top destination for visitors to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where it is on display. Drawing from her new book, Julia Child’s Kitchen, Paula Johnson, one of the original collectors and keepers of the iconic space, offers an intimate portrait of Child at home, recalls what it’s like to cook beside her, and reveals how this kitchen has influenced the ways we cook today.

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road from 1957 is almost synonymous with the postwar Beat and counterculture movements that rejected the staid domesticity of the 1950s in search of freedom and alternate ways of life. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, discusses how characters based on the writer William S. Burroughs, the poet Allen Ginsberg, and Kerouac himself embraced new cultural forms like jazz and experimental literature as routes to meaning and artistic freedom.

Film historian Max Alvarez leads a perfect pre-Halloween evening: a nerve-shattering romp through the history of “creature features” spotlighting the screen’s most memorable monsters, mummies, werewolves, oversized insects, outer-space invaders, and aquatic predators—and the behind-the-scenes masterminds who brought them to life from the 1930s to today. It’s a guaranteed treat for fans of the Monsterverse.

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, political history curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are gathering materials and memorabilia to document this election cycle for the national collections. Curator Jon Grinspan covers why he’s been attending Democratic and Republican contests and rallies throughout the year, looking for materials that reflect debates, protests, and on-site and digital campaign activities—and how they provide insights into the evolving spirit and complexity of our political landscape.

The stamp of prolific chef, author, and TV personality Bobby Flay can be felt in restaurants across the country, as well as at the dinner table in many families’ homes. Join him, in conversation with Washington Post’s Joe Yonan, as he discusses his newest cookbook, Bobby Flay: Chapter One, shares insights into his personal and professional experiences and offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the culinary world that shaped him.

Be careful when you step into your garden: It’s full of killers. You may be familiar with carnivorous plants such as the Venus flytrap, sundew, or pitcher plant, but a surprising number of plants could be classified as carnivorous—including your geraniums and potentillas. Steve Nicholls, a wildlife filmmaker, offers a wide look into these garden-world wonders.

Begun in 1337, the ground floor of Orsanmichele church in Florence, Italy, was originally a loggia-style market. When it was transformed, the inside was decorated with paintings of saints and the outside with statues by artists such as Donatello, Ghiberti, and Verrocchio. Today, the upper floor of Orsanmichele is a museum where all but one of the original sculptures are on display. Renaissance art expert Rocky Ruggiero highlights this museum and its treasures. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)