On May 24 at 6:30 pm, explore the human and environmental impact behind the rich mahogany exteriors of early American tall case clocks with Jennifer Anderson. Early clockmakers and cabinetmakers utilized some of the finest materials available to craft the tall case clocks featured in wealthy homes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Historian Dr. Jennifer Anderson will examine the human and environmental costs of one such material, mahogany. Beneath the rich and silky exterior of this exotic wood lies a larger story of consumer demand, exploitation, and environmental impact.
Your in-person ticket includes access to visit Striking Beauty: New Jersey Tall Case Clocks, 1730 – 1830, from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
This event is hybrid – held both live and online. Doors open for the in-person event at 6:00 p.m. in the Stockton Education Center at the Morven Museum & Garden, 55 Stockton Street in Princeton, New Jersey. The virtual waiting room opens on Zoom at 6:00 p.m. Q&A for both live and virtual attendees will follow the talk.
A Zoom webinar link will be shared with virtual ticket holders upon registration. A recording of the event will be provided following the program.
Jennifer Anderson, Associate Professor of History at Stonybrook University, holds a PhD in Atlantic and Early American History from New York University. She is the author of Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America (Harvard Univ. Press, 2012) about the social and environmental history of the tropical timber trade in the 18th century. She has received many awards and fellowships, including the 2016 Murrin Prize and the Society of American Historians’ Nevins Prize. She headed the research team for the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Traces of the Trade,” about the New England slave trade and in 2013 curated an exhibition about Sylvester Manor, a 17th century plantation in New York. Her new research focuses on reinterpreting the complex human and environmental history of Long Island within the broader Atlantic context. Strongly committed to public history, she serves as a historical consultant at numerous historic sites and museums.
