CALENDAR 2023-2024
JOHN TSCHIRCH
“America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes Through the Ages”
MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024
The Lyceum, 201 South Washington Street, 7 P.M. light refreshments, 7:30 lecture
Rose Trellis, Armsea Hall, Newport, RI, 1914. Frances Benjamin Johnston. Courtesy the Library of Congress.
Newport, Rhode Island has been often referred to as “The Eden of America.” This richly illustrated lecture explores over three centuries of landscape design, literature, and art that have been created in this verdant place. With garden shovel, pen, brush, paint, and camera, generations of gardeners, nursery owners, writers, and artists have literally and figuratively shaped the land. Among them were renowned figures such as landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons, writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry James, the painter Childe Hassam, and pioneering photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. The result of their work is an extraordinary heritage, a vision of a human-made Eden through the ages.
John Tschirch is an award-winning architectural historian, writer and photographer. He has recently published Newport: The Artful City (Giles Ltd. London, 2020) for which he received a 2021 Victorian Society in America Book Award and America’s Eden: Newport Landscapes through the Ages (Giles Ltd, London) for The Newport Tree Conservancy. John received his M.A. (1986) in Architectural History and Historic Preservation from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. His thirty-year career in the preservation and study of historic landmarks and landscapes across the globe has led him on treks to French chateaux, English castles, Italian villas, Austrian palaces, Croatian fortresses, Argentinian mansions and the Gilded Age houses of America. John’s work in preserving and interpreting historic places has been featured in the Magazine Antiques, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler and he has appeared on the A&E documentary series, America’s Castles.
John also writes historical fiction inspired by his globe trekking career. He recently published Gods and Girls: Tales of Art, Seduction and Obsession (Amazon 2019), a collection of short stories about young heroines who encounter works of art and historic places that forever change the course of their lives. Join us in welcoming John to Alexandria!
Mon, Oct. 16
Julien Icher, “Marquis de La Fayette’s 1824 Visit”
Mon, Oct 23 – Wed. Oct. 25
Newport/Providence Study Tour
Mon, Nov. 20
Robert McCracken Peck “Icy Embellishments, Arctic Exploration and the Decorative Arts”
Mon, Jan 15
Calder Loth, “Greek Classicism as a Design Resource” -RESCHEDULED FOR APRIL
Mon, Jan 15
Calder Loth, “Greek Classicism as a Design Resource”-RESCHEDULED FOR APRIL
Mon. Feb 19
Brock Jobe, “Open for Business: A Tour of 18th-Century Cabinet Shops in London, Boston, and Philadelphia."
Mon. Mar 18
Jason Busch, “The American Folk Art Museum in New York: Past, Present, and Future”
Mon. April 15
Calder Loth, “Greek Classicism as a Design Resource”
Mon. May 20
John Tschirch, “The Gardens of Newport”
PLEASE REGISTER GUESTS WITH karen.d.paul1948@gmail.com. Suggested contribution for guests attending a one-time lecture is $10.
SNOW POLICY: In the event we must cancel a lecture at the last moment, we will attempt to notify you by email and post the cancellation on our site. If you do not have email, or do not see it on the site (as we may not have had enough time to get the message up), please phone the Lyceum, 703-838-4994, to see if it is open before starting out.