This fall, Historic Annapolis has a full line up of educational, engaging, and fun virtual lectures scheduled. Each Thursday night, guests are given the opportunity to get comfortable on the couch, grab a beverage, and invite the presenter into their living rooms via Zoom. With just one exception, each lecture is held on Thursdays from 7 pm – 8 pm. Unless otherwise stated, each lecture costs $10 for Historic Annapolis Members and $15 for the General Public. Registration is required and can be made at www.annapolis.org .
If guests can not join the live presentation, but wish to see the lecture, they should still register and they will be emailed the link to the video recording the following day. Recordings are available to view up to two weeks following the lecture.
Upcoming Virtual Lectures include:
Slavery and Servitude in Early Annapolis
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Bound artisans labored in craft workshops, construction sites, public buildings, and domestic interiors. These bound artisans—including enslaved, indentured, and convict servants—comprised the majority of the labor force in Annapolis. Annapolis’ great Georgian mansions, extant furnishings and artworks, and even the Maryland State Capitol building remain as products of bound laborers’ skill and expertise. Despite working for and with the city’s most famous free white artisans, most notably Charles Willson Peale, William Buckland, John Shaw, and William Faris, enslaved and indentured artisans are often left out of studies of craft in early Annapolis. In this lecture, presenter Bethany McGlyn will retrace the lives and work of several enslaved and servant artisans.
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Cost: $15 General Admission per household; $10 for HA Members and Volunteers per household
Tubman Travels: Underground Railroad Journeys and Life Lessons from Tubman, Douglass, and Other Champions of Freedom
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Maryland’s Eastern Shore was home to two American heroes of the first order in Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman and antislavery activist Frederick Douglass. In this presentation, award-winning writer and storyteller Jim Duffy shares keystone stories from the very different journeys those two took out of bondage and into the history books. Learn, too, about other, lesser known champions of freedom from here in our own backyard. Along the way, Duffy will share a few of the life lessons he learned while researching and writing the book. Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva.
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Cost: $15 General Admission per household; $10 for HA Members and Volunteers per household
An Introduction to 18th Century Furniture and Construction
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Join Cabinetmaker Tony Lovett to explore the different furniture periods of the 18th century, as well as those individuals that had a lasting impact on the period’s furniture designs. Mr. Lovett will highlight key aspects of 18th century furniture and discuss their construction, as well as demonstrate the different methods and tools used for construction.
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Cost: $15 General Admission per household; $10 for HA Members and Volunteers per household
Archaeology at the James Brice House
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Since January, 2018, the Lost Towns Project, Inc. has been conducting archaeological digs around and in the 250 year-old James Brice House, helping the restoration team answer questions about the construction, and who may have lived in, worked on, or visited this House over its lifetime. Amelia Chisholm, Archaeological Laboratory Manager for the Lost Towns Project, will share some of the latest fascinating discoveries they’ve made at the Brice House. Learn more about the objects found under the basement floor, in the backyard, and under the front steps.
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Cost: $15 General Admission per household; $10 for HA Members and Volunteers per household
Legacy of the Green Book
Thursday, October 15, 2020
In 1936, Victor Hugo Green, a Harlem postman, began publishing a guide for African American travelers modeled after a similar publication for Jewish travelers. The Green Book was an instant success providing black travelers with information on hotels, restaurants, service stations, and other facilities where they would be welcomed. In the era of Jim Crow and “sundown towns,” this knowledge was not just helpful, it could be lifesaving. Historian and Green Book expert Candacy Taylor will be interviewed by Marquette Folley, project director of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s exhibition The Negro Motorist Green Book.
This is a free lecture offered in partnership with the Smithsonian Affiliations program. Registration details will be available on the Historic Annapolis website at annapolis.org. Historic Annapolis is a one of only 6 museums in Maryland to be recognized as a Smithsonian Affiliate.
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Cost: Free
Rolling Down the River: Jacques Marquette, Louis, Jolliet, and the Fate of the French New World
Thursday, October 29, 2020
In 1673, France and England were locked in a power struggle over the future of North America. In this virtual presentation, Laura Chmielewski, Associate Professor of History and Department Chair at the State University of New York at Purchase. explores the dynamics of French and English colonization at a time when the continent’s future was in transition. Hear the tale of the brief, yet epic, adventure of explorers Marquette and Jolliet – that nearly changed the course of a continent.
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Cost: $15 General Admission per household; $10 for HA Members and Volunteers per household
