Gilded Age Lecture Series
What are the origins of the Gilded Age? Where does the name come from? Why was it used? How, or better why, does gold fit into the description of an American era? The 2022 winter lecture series will examine the social and art historical influences that led to this unique period in American history.
Join us for a series of virtual lectures, beginning Thursday, January 27, 2022, with “Naming an Era: The Gilded Age as Novel and Nom de Guerre,” at 6 p.m., live via Zoom, featuring historians and scholars of Mark Twain. The series continues with a lecture on Thursday, February 10, featuring internationally renowned gilder and historian Michael Kramer of The Gilders’ Studio, who will discuss the history and techniques of gold leaf application; and Thursday, February 24, with the Preservation Society’s new Curator of Collections, Dr. Nicole Williams, who will discuss the international influences that led to the Gilded Age in America. All lectures will be hosted via Zoom and begin at 6 p.m. EST.
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Our virtual lectures are free and registration is open to the public. In order for us to continue these offerings, your support is critical. Please consider making a donation to the Preservation Society by clicking the donation button below. Any amount is greatly appreciated and we are thankful for your continued support.
To view past Virtual Lectures, click here
Naming an Era: The Gilded Age as Novel and Nom de Guerre
Thursday, January 27, 6 p.m., via Zoom
Co-presented by The Mark Twain House & Museum
Join us Thursday, January 27, 2022, for our first lecture of the new
year. “Naming an Era: The Gilded Age as Novel and Nom de Guerre” will
begin at 6 p.m., live via Zoom. Historians and scholars of Mark Twain
will join in conversation to analyze and discuss
the origins of the term “Gilded Age,” which was taken from the Mark
Twain and Charley Dudley Warner 1873 novel "The Gilded Age: A Tale of
Today." While the fictional book is largely based in Tennessee and
Washington, D.C., it provides a contextual framework
of current events and social structure that made for this largely
misunderstood period in American history.
Speakers include Dr. Carroll Van West, professor and Tennessee
State Historian; Pieter Roos, Executive Director of the Mark Twain
House; Dr. James Golden, Twain scholar and Director of Interpretation
at Historic Deerfield; and Dr. Kerry Driscoll, author
and Associate Editor of the Mark Twain Papers and Project at the University
of California, Berkeley.
This Zoom lecture, co-presented by The Mark Twain House & Museum, is free. But you must sign up by clicking this lecture registration link. If you would like to purchase a copy of "The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today," click this link.
Dr. Kerry Driscoll, Professor of English Emerita at the University of Saint Joseph (West Hartford, CT), is currently Associate Editor at the Mark Twain Papers and Project at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Mark Twain Among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples (University of California Press, 2018), the first book-length study of the writer's evolving views regarding the aboriginal inhabitants of North America and the Southern Hemisphere, and his deeply conflicted representations of them in fiction, newspaper sketches, and speeches. She is past president of the Mark Twain Circle of America and is on the Board of Trustees at The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, CT.
Dr. James Golden is Director of Interpretation at Historic Deerfield, Inc., where he oversees the interpretation of numerous historic houses, the K-12 education programs, and key public programs. Previously, he was Director of Education at The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, CT, and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He holds an MA in Divinity and an MSc in History from the University of Edinburgh, and a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He has taught history at Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and the University of Hartford.
Pieter Roos is the Executive Director of The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, CT, an 1874 home designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter for Olivia and Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). Prior to joining the Twain House, Roos served as the Executive Director of the Newport Restoration Foundation.
Dr. Carroll Van West is the Director and history professor at the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University. He is also the Tennessee State Historian and has focused his work on properties associated with rural areas and marginalized communities. In addition to being widely published and serving as a visiting Scholar at the University of Virginia, West contributes to the field as an appointed committee member to the National Historic Landmarks Committee of the National Park Service.