Videos and Recorded Programs

This symposium investigates the history of garden plant domestication in China, focusing on such topics as horticultural techniques, the origins and distribution of important species, and the knowledge gained from literary records to DNA analysis.

William Deverell, professor of history at USC, explores the regional dimensions of American entrepreneurialism; what special features or challenges found in the American West helped drive entrepreneurs and stimulate original thinking, and how and why did the West inhibit breakthroughs or pioneer innovations?

Fara Dabhoiwala, professor of history at Princeton University, explores why speech, before the 18th century, was continually monitored and policed in every sphere of life across the Western world; no one believed speech should be free. This program is a Crotty Lecture.

Susan Burns, professor of history at the University of Chicago, explores the incorporation of saffron into Japanese pharmacology, a complex process that involved the rise of natural science and a “productive confusion” that linked saffron with other botanicals. This program is part of the East Asian Garden Lecture series.

Benjamin Madley, associate professor of history at UCLA, discusses the near-annihilation and survival of California’s indigenous population under United States rule in this Billington Lecture

The death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 marked not only the succession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne but also a change of dynasty from Tudor to Stuart. This conference explains how, in a world of weak bureaucracy that depended on the willingness of powerful people to govern, a change of dynasty influenced the governance of the realm.

Rose hybridizer Tom Carruth, the E. L. and Ruth B. Shannon Curator of the Rose Collections at The Huntington, introduces his newest floribunda, ‘Huntington’s Hundredth’, developed to commemorate the institution’s upcoming centennial. The old-fashioned rose is a soft pastel yellow touched with a blush of orchid pink and cream, with a powerful fragrance reminiscent of citrus blossoms and sweet fruit.

Mary Sarah Bilder, Founders Professor at Boston College Law School, discusses the responses of George Washington and Benjamin Rush to Eliza Harriot O’Connor’s remarkable university lectures in 1787 and their implications for female political status under the Constitution. O’Connor was the first American female lecturer and principal of a female academy. This program is a Nevins Lecture.