Thursday, October 9 at 6:00 PM
Join us for a lecture by Elizabeth Athens, winner of The Athenaeum's Literary Award for Non-Fiction for her book William Bartram’s Visual Wonders: The Drawings of an American Naturalist. Bartram’s drawings of nature were not simply representations of the flora and fauna that he encountered during his life. Instead, they provided a means for him to imagine other lives that were as richly complex as, yet distinct from, his own. As his drawings reveal, he came to understand nature as a finely wrought web in which each organism was of equal significance, experiencing life on its own terms and in its own compelling way.
The program will be followed by a book signing and reception.
Elizabeth Athens is an art historian with research interests in the visual and material culture of science, the art of empire, and the history of collecting. Her writing has appeared in CrossCurrents, The Oxford Art Journal, and J18: A Journal of Eighteenth-Century Art and Culture. She has worked in research and curatorial capacities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art, and is currently an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Connecticut. Her publications include Coming Away: Winslow Homer and England (2017) and William Bartram’s Visual Wonders (2024).
Want to learn more about Bartram? Be sure to register for our September 19th tour of Bartram's Garden for Athenaeum members and their guests! Space is very limited.
This is a free event.
