Collectors & Explorers Lecture Series:

The State’s Rich Architectural Heritage

HARTFORD — The Antiquarian & Landmarks Society is presenting the 10th Annual Collectors & Explorers Lecture Series, an award-winning statewide lecture and workshop series that, this year, will illuminate Connecticut’s rich architectural landscape.

The 2007 series, “A Sense of Place: A Survey of Connecticut Architecture,” will offer lectures given at three locations: South Congregational Church in Hartford, The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, and New Haven Museum and Historical Society.

Lecture times are Tuesdays at 5:30 pm in Hartford, Wednesdays at 5:30 pm in New Haven, and Thursdays at 2 pm in Old Lyme.

Reservations are recommended. Admission is $10 for one lecture to $35 for the series. Discounts are available for museum and sponsoring organization members.

Lectures will present stories of the state’s architectural history, and images of some of Connecticut’s most significant buildings.

Mary G. Harper, director, Public Archaeology Team, Inc., will present “Secrets Underground:  What Archaeology Can Contribute to Interpretation of Everyday Household Life,” March 20-22.

“Archaeology is the final piece that helps provide a more complete and intimate picture of house/homestead construction and daily life,” says Ms Harper. She will uncover evidence and share findings from excavations of 18th Century, Connecticut standing houses (including a recent project at A&L’s Nathan Hale Homestead), as well as her work on buried structures in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Dr James Sexton, an architectural historian, will present “18th Century Architecture Three Ways,” March 27-29, focusing on three significant structures: the Bush-Holley House in Greenwich, the Joseph Webb House in Wethersfield, and the Pardee-Morris House in New Haven. Relying on extensive research undertaken for historic structures reports on these buildings, Dr Sexton will explain how each of them is representative of a type — specifically, a center chimney “saltbox,” a center hall house, and a “River God” mansion — and how they diverge from these norms. He will also explain the research approaches and techniques that have helped us teach what we know about each of them.   

Dr Abigail A. Van Slyck, Dayton Associate Professor of Art History at Connecticut College, will present “Beyond the March of Styles: Architecture and Urban Space in Victorian New London,” April 3-5, with a focus on the architecture of New London’s State Street.

“Many of the major American architectural styles are represented on this one street, which extends from the harbor and nearby railroad station designed by H. H. Richardson up the hill to a courthouse completed in 1785,” says Dr Van Slyck. By considering relationships among these buildings, this talk will highlight the collective campaign waged by Victorian New Londoners to bring order to the unruly urban fabric of their city.

For reservations, call 860-247-8996 extension 23.