If you had to leave your homeland, what would you bring with you?  What would you be able to bring?  What would you be allowed to bring?  And what would your choices say about your reasons for going, your hopes for the future, and your connection to those you left behind?  John Roy Mackay carried the chanter from his grandfather’s set of bagpipes with him when he emigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1805.  Twenty-one year old Robert Walker, a Scottish cabinetmaker, chose to bring his copy of Thomas Sheraton’s Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book.  Join Daniel Ackermann and Stephen Jackson as they discuss immigration through the lens of two objects that made the journey from Scotland to North America.

In the United States the upcoming 400th anniversary of the “first” Thanksgiving is a time to consider the indigenous cultures whose lives were dramatically affected by colonization here and throughout the world. In the United States, efforts to erase indigenous cultures continued in government-run schools well into the 20th century. Elsewhere, first peoples were were driven to near-extinction while their material culture was appropriated into anthropological collections.

A basket made by a now-unknown woman ancestor and placed in a museum collection by a colonial British official. A brush pushed across a rough floor as punishment for speaking your native language. These things provide a window into the struggle between colonizers and the colonized. Join Dr. Julie Gough and Watson Harlan for a conversation about Things and the attempted erasure and resilience of indigenous cultures in the Southern Woodland, now the American South, and Tasmania.

Hidden messages scrawled on drawer sides. Secrets buried beneath layers of paint.

Threats of revolution. Promises of change.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, revolution and political upheaval created complex situations for craftspeople and consumers. Much like today, they had to navigate periods of extraordinary political tumult while meeting the expectations of those with whom they didn’t always agree and sometimes even hiding their own allegiances.

On the eve of revolution, Jacques-Louis David completed an arresting portrait of Antoine Laurent and Marie Anne Lavoisier. Monsieur Lavoisier, known today as the founder of modern chemistry, is seen alongside his wife at his table with implements of scientific study. Why would a seemingly innocuous portrait of the couple be pulled from the 1789 Paris Salon for fear of inciting revolution? And how did David, one of the most highly regarded portraitists to the aristocracy, navigate the shifting political sands of this violent, fraught period in French history?

A decade later, John Shearer constructed an imposing and highly embellished desk and bookcase which stands today as the Scottish-turned-backcountry Virginian cabinetmaker’s masterpiece. With so much exceptional detail, one could easily miss multiple hidden messages that reveal Shearer’s proud Tory affiliation. How, then, would a British craftsman in a newly-independent America maintain his loyalty to the crown?

Join Catherine Carlisle and David Pullins for a conversation about the necessity and perils of maintaining neutrality.

NOTE: Registration closes at 11:59PM EST on December 1, 2020

What do a brass lancet and a tin bath tub have to do with mental health?

Fear, worry, and stress are timeless responses to uncertainty, isolation, and illness. One in five people have mental health conditions today and one in two people are at risk for developing them.  Experts warn that Covid-19 has exacerbated an already extensive mental health crisis in the world and urge professionals and policy makers to address the growing needs of patients as this pandemic lingers on.

How did doctors and “experts” treat patients with mental health issues generations ago?  How do the treatments endured by King George III in London in the eighteenth century and the therapies withstood by a young schoolteacher in Salem in the nineteenth century differ from the treatment options provided to patients today? Join Johanna Brown, curator of Moravian Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museums & Gardens and Rachel Mackay, manager at Kew Palace in London as we discuss mental health treatments used centuries ago.