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The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Conferences and Lectures LECTURE: “Clang” December 13, 2005 (Tuesday), 7:30 p.m. The bell has been a powerful communicator and community symbol.  Robert C. Ritchie, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, will trace its rise and decline with the sound of different bells as part of the program. Free. Friends’ Hall. THE ALLAN NEVINS LECTURE: “The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin” January 11, 2006 (Wednesday), 7:30 p.m. In commemoration of Benjamin Franklin’s 300^th birthday, Gordon S. Wood, Professor of History at Brown University, will explain how Franklin, a great admirer of the British Empire, gradually became an American, especially following his death in 1790. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin is also the title of Professor Wood’s most recent book. Free. Friends’ Hall.  LECTURE: “British Poetry Today: A Reading” January 26, 2006 (Thursday), 7:30 p.m. Four of Britain's finest poets -- James Fenton, Alan Jenkins, Blake Morrison, and Anthony Thwaite -- will read from their own poetry as well as from poetry by twentieth-century predecessors. The readings should provide an entertaining introduction not only to contemporary British poetry but to the poets discussed in the conference, “The Movement and Modernism.” Free. Friends’ Hall. CONFERENCE: “The Movement and Modernism” January 27-28, 2006 (Friday and Saturday), 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Movement was the most influential poetical grouping in post-war Britain. A group of distinguished poets and academics from both Britain and the United States will examine the relation of its major figures, including Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis, Thom Gunn, Donald Davie, and Robert Conquest, to the Modernist writers who preceded them, as well as what part it played in shaping poetry today. $25. Registration: 626-405-3432 or skrasnoo@huntington.org. DISTINGUISHED FELLOW LECTURE: “The Things Things Say” January 31, 2006 (Tuesday), 7:30 p.m. There is a popular genre of fiction in the 18^th and 19^th centuries called “it-narratives” where things (and animals) get to speak and to tell their life stories. Although scarcely heard of these days, some of the genres which contributed to the “it-narrative” are well known -- fable, still life, and voyage literature. Jonathan Lamb, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Vanderbilt University and the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow, will visit some of these genres in order to discover how things speak of themselves and what they have to say about human beings. Free. Friends’ Hall.    THE HAYNES FOUNDATION LECTURE: “Build It: Los Angeles and Its Museums” February 7, 2006 (Tuesday), 7:30 p.m. Museums preserve and display our cultural heritage. Los Angeles built its museum complex in a relatively short period. Robert C. Ritchie, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, will examine the causes and consequences of this creative outburst. Free. Friends’ Hall.    CONFERENCE: “The Performing Society: Nineteenth-Century Theatre’s History” March 3-4, 2006 (Friday and Saturday), 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Leading scholars will address the ways in which performance functioned as an index of meaning in 19^th-century society, linking genres to forms of social gathering, theatres to modes of nationalist assertion, and entertainments to deeply rooted problems during a period of rapid industrialization, urbanization, and mechanization. $25. Registration: (626) 405-3432 or skrasnoo@huntington.org. DISTINGUISHED FELLOW LECTURE: “The Struggle for the South Atlantic in the Late Sixteenth Century” March 7, 2006 (Tuesday), 7:30 p.m. In 1580, the joint empires of Spain and Portugal spanned the globe but France and England also wanted a piece of the action. Carla Rahn Phillips, Professor of History, University of Minnesota, and the Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow, has discovered a Huntington manuscript chronicling a Hispano-Portuguese expedition (1581-84) that aimed to oust the French from Brazil and establish a colony in Patagonia to thwart the English, providing a rare glimpse into the geo-politics of the time and its human cost. Free. Friends’ Hall. THE CROTTY LECTURE: “The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius” March 23, 2006 (Thursday), 7:30 p.m. Famous, fascinating Benjamin Franklin -- he would be neither without his accomplishments in natural science. Joyce Chaplin, Professor of History, Harvard University, will discuss how science, his life's central feature, is its most mysterious and least understood element. Free. Friends’ Hall. DISTINGUISHED FELLOW LECTURE: “Dillinger’s Ghost” March 28, 2006 (Tuesday), 7:30 p.m. In 1933 and 1934, American newspapers were filled with news about a gang of bank robbers, led by John Dillinger -- one of America's great celebrity criminals whose name still lingers in folk memory. Elliott Gorn, Professor of History, Brown University, and Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellow, will explain who John Dillinger was and why he became so famous. Free. Friends’ Hall. CONFERENCE: “Sensation: Viewing Gainsborough’s Cottage Door” April 8, 2006 (Saturday), 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thomas Gainsborough's creation of affecting landscapes such as The Cottage Door depended on a dramatic treatment of color, light, and brushwork. His contemporaries, however, often employed these tools to more sensational ends. The symposium will examine the cults of sensation and special effects as they emerge in high art and popular visual spectacle, with particular attention to the development of 18^th-century stage design, the panorama, phantasmagoria, and other sublime feats of visual magic. $10. Registration: (626) 405-3432 or skrasnoo@huntington.org. THE MARTIN RIDGE LECTURE: “Mothering Monsters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” April 12, 2006 (Wednesday), 7:30 p.m. Mary Shelley’s extraordinary life led directly to the creation of one of our most enduring myths, the story of a scientist who makes a monster he can’t control. Anne Mellor, Distinguished Professor of English, UCLA, will focus on the ways in which Shelley’s own experiences contributed to the writing of this famous novel. Free. Friends’ Hall. LECTURE: Stradivari’s Genius by Toby Faber April 17, 2006 (Monday), 7:30 p.m. Blending history, biography, meticulous detective work, and an abiding passion for music, Toby Faber’s debut book, Stradivari’s Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection, explores the life of the famed Italian violin maker and six of his most important instruments. A book signing will follow the talk. Free. Friends’ Hall. CONFERENCE: “Book Consumption in the Tudor Era: Printing, Publishing, and Reading” April 21-22, 2006 (Friday and Saturday), 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. This conference focuses on the interplay between the material and intellectual consumption of books during the Tudor era (1485-1603), with particular attention to the contribution of publishers and booksellers. $25. Registration: (626) 405-3432 or skrasnoo@huntington.org. Huntington Home [Research Home | Library Home ] © 2001, Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Last revised: December 8, 2005 The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108 626-405-2100 Comments to: webmaster@huntington.org