Discover the rich history of the region with Historic New England’s Program in New England Studies, an intensive week-long exploration of New England from Monday, June 18 to Saturday, June 23, 2012.  The Program in New England Studies includes lectures by noted curators and architectural historians, hands-on workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, and special access to historic house museums and museum collections. The program examines New England history and material culture from the seventeenth century through the Colonial Revival. Curators lecture on furniture, textiles, ceramics, art, and wallpaper and cover their history, craftsmanship, and changing methods of production. Architectural historians explore a timeline of regional architecture starting with the Massachusetts Bay styles of the seventeenth century through the Federal and Georgian eras, to Gothic Revival and the Colonial Revival. Participants visit historic sites and museums with curators and enjoy special receptions.

Expert lecturers include:

• Richard Candee, professor emeritus, Boston University
• Cary Carson, retired vice president of the research division at Colonial Williamsburg
• Abbott Lowell Cummings, former director, Historic New England
• James L. Garvin, state architectural historian, New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources
• J. Ritchie Garrison, director, Winterthur Program in Early American Material Culture
• Brock Jobe, professor of decorative arts, Winterthur Program in Early American
  Culture
• Dean Lahikainen, curator of American decorative arts, Peabody Essex Museum
• Jane C. Nylander, president emerita, Historic New England
• Richard C. Nylander, curator emeritus, Historic New England
• Robert Blair St. George, associate professor of history, University of Pennsylvania
• Gerald W. R. Ward, senior consulting curator and Katharine Lane Weems senior
  curator emeritus, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Richard Guy Wilson, chair, Department of Architectural History, University of
  Virginia

The group enjoys several receptions at private homes and travels to sites throughout New England for tours at Historic New England properties in Greater Boston; Essex County, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; South Berwick, Maine; and Woodstock, Connecticut; plus workshops in furniture, ceramics, and textiles at the Collections and Conservation Center in Haverhill, Massachusetts. There is a private tour of the Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with Curator Gerald Ward, in-depth tours by Abbott Lowell Cummings and Cary Carson of Historic New England’s Newbury, Massachusetts, properties; and a tour and reception of the Ayer Mansion in Boston, the country’s only surviving residence created by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Fees and Registration

The $1,500 fee includes all lectures, admissions, guided tours, transportation to and from special visits and excursions, daily breakfast and lunch, scheduled evening receptions, and various service charges. Three scholarships are available to mid-career museum professionals and graduate students in the fields of architecture, decorative arts, material culture, or public history. Program in New England Studies is designed to appeal to owners of historic houses, collectors, museum professionals, graduate students, and those who enjoy New England history, and is limited to twenty-five participants. For more information on the program, contact Ken Turino at 617-994-5958 or visit HistoricNewEngland.org.

About Historic New England

Historic New England is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization in the nation. We bring history to life while preserving the past for everyone interested in exploring the New England experience from the seventeenth century to today. Historic New England owns and operates thirty-six historic homes and landscapes spanning five states. We share the region’s history through vast collections, publications, programs, museum properties, archives, and family stories that document more than 400 years of life in New England.