Event Announcement: Directors' Night 2025

15 Jan 2025 8:53 AM | Anonymous

Save the date for Directors' Night 2025! This virtual program features three lectures by three current board members on their recent and ongoing research. The event will take place on February 13 at 7 PM, and registrants will receive a Zoom link on the day of the event. Please follow the "events" subheading above to register.

This year's talks will feature:

Dennis DeWitt, "Bostons Parisian Pissoirs": In the early nineteenth century, American and European cities provided little or no opportunities for working men to relieve themselves. In 1855 Boston initiated a now long-forgotten program of constructing public street urinals, just as the first iron pissoirs were appearing in Paris. Over the course of some 65 years the program sponsored the creation of twenty-six examples from four different designs, in the face on ongoing opposition. DeWitt's pre-recorded talk examines the design, construction, and ultimate removal of these urban pissoirs.

Sophie Higgerson, "The Mechanics of Obscurity: Lois Welzenbacher and Modernism's Margins": Sophie Higgerson presents a work-in-progress talk on Lois Welzenbacher's inclusion in MoMA's 1932 exhibition of modern architecture. Though he was included to represent the country of Austria, Welzenbacher's architecture was largely dismissed by the show's co-curators Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, who criticized Welzenbacher's designs in their accompanying scholarly publication. Higgerson investigates how the circumstances of Welzenbacher's career and discovery by the two Americans contributed to his marginal status in architectural history today.

Christina Volpe, "Preserving Legacy: The Barnes Museum and Southington's Built Environment": The Barnes Museum, a historic house museum nestled in Southington, Connecticut, stands as a testament to over two centuries of local history and family legacy. Celebrating its 50th anniversary as a museum, this 19th-century homestead remains a time capsule, showcasing the Bradley Barnes family's daily lives, aspirations, and influence. Christina Volpe explores the Barnes Museum's pivotal role in shaping Southington's built environment and collective memory, highlighting how the industrialists of the Gilded Age left an enduring impact on the town's physical and cultural landscape. Her forthcoming book The Barnes Museum & Homestead (available February 25, Arcadia Publishing) expands on these stories, weaving together the threads of community, preservation, and legacy.

The program will conclude with a live Q&A with Sophie Higgerson and Christina Volpe


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