Saturday, March 16, 10:00 am, Monthly Program
Black Doctor: A Biography of James McCune Smith
A presentation by Christopher L. Webber View a recording on the IHS YouTube Channel
Chris Webber discussed his latest book,
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Monthly Program March 2025: Black Doctor: A Biography of James McCune Smith
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Posted in Institute Activities
Posted in Institute Activities
Sunday, August 21, 2:00 pm, Public Program via Zoom.
Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of four books: Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020; a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History); Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012); and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005). She writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and TIME. Before leaving academia to write full-time in 2014, she taught U.S. history and American Studies at Texas Tech University, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown. She grew up in Colorado but now lives in Boston with her husband and two cats.
Writing and Revising Narrative History
A Presentation by Megan Kate Nelson
Join the Mechanics' Institute and the Institute for Historical Study for this exciting talk about writing with historian Megan Kate Nelson who left academia in 2014 to become a full-time writer. During this Zoom event, she will offer advice for writers who want to publish trade history books and other pieces for general readers. Dr. Nelson will talk about how to make the transition from academic to narrative history writing, how to revise manuscripts for trade publication, and how to pitch articles and Op-eds to newspapers and magazines.
Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of four books: Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020; a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History); Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012); and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005). She writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and TIME. Before leaving academia to write full-time in 2014, she taught U.S. history and American Studies at Texas Tech University, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown. She grew up in Colorado but now lives in Boston with her husband and two cats.
Saturday,November 15, 10:00 am, Monthly Program via Zoom.
In the summer of 1938, Dorothy Wright Liebes embarked on a six-week, nine-country journey across Europe in preparation for her role as Director of the Decorative Arts Pavilion at the Golden Gate International Exposition the following year. Her mission was to gather items that illustrated her conviction that "the art spirit of any age may well be measured by the vitality in the design of everyday things."
"Useful and beautiful" is how Liebes described the items she collected for display in the pavilion. Speaker Liz Schott will share the history, intrigue , beauty, and humor of this very popular pavilion at the Treasure Island Worlds Fair of 1939.
Liz Schott is working on a biography of Dorothy Wright Liebes. She is a retired educator who lives in Sebastopol. Her proposal for Useful and Beautiful: The Life of Dorothy Wright Liebes won the Biographers International Organization’s Hazel Rowley Prize in June, 2025.
Dorothy Liebes and the Golden Gate International Exposition
A presentation by Liz Schott
In the summer of 1938, Dorothy Wright Liebes embarked on a six-week, nine-country journey across Europe in preparation for her role as Director of the Decorative Arts Pavilion at the Golden Gate International Exposition the following year. Her mission was to gather items that illustrated her conviction that "the art spirit of any age may well be measured by the vitality in the design of everyday things."
"Useful and beautiful" is how Liebes described the items she collected for display in the pavilion. Speaker Liz Schott will share the history, intrigue , beauty, and humor of this very popular pavilion at the Treasure Island Worlds Fair of 1939.
Liz Schott is working on a biography of Dorothy Wright Liebes. She is a retired educator who lives in Sebastopol. Her proposal for Useful and Beautiful: The Life of Dorothy Wright Liebes won the Biographers International Organization’s Hazel Rowley Prize in June, 2025.
You are welcome to invite friends and colleagues to attend.
The presentation will be recorded, and posted on YouTube. If you don’t want to be on the recording, just make sure your video is off. And please remember to mute your microphone!
You are welcome to invite friends and colleagues to attend.
The presentation will be recorded, and posted on YouTube. If you don’t want to be on the recording, just make sure your video is off. And please remember to mute your microphone!