Boston Flora

Tag: Harvard

  • Wednesday, March 27, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener

    On Wednesday, March 27, from 6:30 – 8 at the Arnold Arboretum, Barbara Paul Robinson will talk from her personal experience as a gardener with Rosemary Verey and from her research for her book, Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener, which was published by David R. Godine in August 2012. This event is co-sponsored by the Garden Conservancy, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. Rosemary Verey was an internationally acclaimed garden legend. Although she embraced gardening late in life, she quickly achieved international renown. She was the acknowledged apostle of the “English style,” on display at her home at Barnsley House, the “must have” adviser to the rich and famous, including Prince Charles and Elton John, and a beloved and wildly popular lecturer in America. A child of a generation born between the two World Wars, she went on to create the gardens at her home that became a mandatory stop on every garden tour in the 1980s and 1990s.

    During a sabbatical from law firm Debevoise & Plimpton where she was the first woman partner, Barbara Paul Robinson worked as a gardener for Rosemary Verey at Barnsley House. A hands-in-the-dirt gardener herself, she and her husband created their own gardens at Brush Hill in northwestern Connecticut, featured in articles, books, and on television. Barbara has published articles in the New York Times, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, and Hortus; she wrote a chapter in Rosemary Verey’s The Secret Garden, and she is a frequent speaker.  $5 for members of one of the sponsoring organizations, $15 general admission.  To register, call the Arnold Arboretum’s adult education department at 617-384-5277.

    http://hereandnow.wbur.org/files/2012/12/1221_rosemary-verey-624x476.jpg

  • Thursday, April 11, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – A City is (Not) a Tree: New Models of Urban Space

    In the face of persistent change, the recurrent geological and biological metaphors in modern urban theories may betray a collective fear of not being able to produce an environment with the “second nature” feeling of the traditional city. But rather than dream of a brave new world we should reconsider our practice of “grafting” new spaces on the existing ones, because inevitably, the landscape of the new world will be a mixture of man-made and natural environments. The beauty of the city may overwrite that of nature but we can take comfort in its imperfection, however multiple, occasional, and fallible it may be. Reflections on these themes will frame a critical review of urban and architectural design experiences in Italy and Europe by Cino Zucchi Architetti (Milan). Cino Zucchi is the John T. Dunlop Visiting Professor in Housing and Urbanization. The program, sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, will take place Thursday, April 11, from 6:30 – 8, at the Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street in Cambridge, and is free and open to the public.

    http://www.admnetwork.it/wp-content/gallery/cino-zucchi-il-pianeta-della-fortuna/Cino-Zucchi%20-%20Ravenna.jpg

  • Friday, June 14 – Sunday, June 23 – Land of the Ice Bears: An In-Depth Exploration of Arctic Svalbard

    A remote archipelago situated just over 350 miles north of Norway’s North Cape, Svalbard is a place of deep fjords, mountains and massive sheets of ice (and the Arctic seed vault.) During summer, when the sun never sets, the tundra experiences a warm awakening and is carpeted with wildflowers. Ice peppered fjords ring with the thunderous sound of glacial ice crashing to the sea, and walrus raise their sleepy heads to observe us. Witness seals and arctic foxes and search for the very symbol of the Arctic— majestic polar bears. Cruise Svalbard’s fjords, venture to the foot of stunning tidewater glaciers, and kayak among beautiful icebergs. Travel as far north as it is possible to go without an icebreaker, and experience the geology, wildlife, and wildflowers that give color and vitality to the High Arctic.  The trip is sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and you will travel aboard the 148 guest National Geographic Explorer.  The eleven day trip (June 14 – 23) is priced from $8, 650, double occupancy, and a complete itinerary may be found at www.hmnh.harvard.edu, or by calling 617-495-2463.

    http://photovide.com//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Waterfalls-in-Svalbard-6.jpg

  • Saturday, March 16, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm – Swing and Slide

    The West End Museum, 150 Staniford Street in Boston, reveals the engineering feats of Boston’s moving bridges! Join them on a tour Saturday, March 16, beginning at 11 am, that focuses on the mechanics of the draw bridge, as they swing open or slide apart. Led by exhibition curator Duane Lucia, you’ll take in the Charles River Dam, Charlestown Bridge, Northern Avenue Swing Bridge (recipient of the 2013 Blossom Fund grant from The Boston Committee of the GCA)  and Summer Street Retractile Bridge.  Rain date Saturday, March 23.  Meet at the Museum.  For more information, visit www.thewestendmuseum.org.

    This tour highlights the current exhibit Connections North: Bridges of the West End.  Did you know that for 150 years Harvard college depended on an unusual source of income: its ferry. Harvard opposed attempts to build bridges, claiming that more visitors would put “scholars in danger of being too much interrupted in their studies & hurt in their morals.”

    It’s easy to forget that Boston is a peninsula surrounded by water, but until the Charles River Bridge was built in 1786 there there were only two ways to get to Cambridge: take the Charlestown ferry, owned by the Harvard Corporation, or make an 8 mile journey overland via Boston Neck (Washington Street) through Roxbury and Brookline.

    Connections North tells a story spanning 300 years about the bridges that changed not only the area immediately around the Charles, but the entire face of Boston, which benefited from new resources brought in from the north. The curators will be covering the Charles River Bridge, West Boston Bridge, Canal Bridge and Warren Bridge, along with their design, construction and the political intrigues they stirred up!

    http://www.thewestendmuseum.org/images/swing_and_slide_small.jpg

  • Thursday, March 28, 6:00 pm – River. Space. Design.: Toward a New Urban Water Culture

    Antje Stokman, Professor and Director of Landscape Planning and Ecology at Stuttgart University in Germany will give the New Directions in EcoPlanning Annual Lecture at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Oxford Street, Cambridge, on Thursday, March 28. Antje Stokman will discuss how, within different cultural contexts, our relationship with water results in very different landscape and city forms. She outlines a vision for reintegrating the dynamics of water into our cities. Free and open to the public. Reception to follow in the HMNH galleries. Supported by a generous gift from Michael Dyett (AB ‘68, MRP ‘72) and Heidi Richardson.

  • Saturday, March 16, 9:00 am – 11:00 pm – Pruning Shrubs

    Knowing what and when to prune, and how to do so, are important as you manage your home landscape. Learn the basic techniques for pruning ornamental shrubs for optimum health and beauty. Jen Kettell, an ISA-certified arborist will address topics including pruning cuts and tools; thinning and reducing overgrown plants; shaping and encouraging new growth, in this workshop at the Arnold Arboretum on Saturday, March 16 from 9 – 11.  $20 Arboretum members, $30 nonmembers, registration at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    http://www.chicagobotanic.org/sites/default/files/images/pruning-july.jpg

  • Wednesday, February 27, 6:00 pm – Jurassic Mothers from China: Origins and Evolution of Mammals

    Paleontologist Zhe-Xi Luo, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, will discuss both the origins of modern mammalian biological adaptations in the deep times of the Mesozoic—dominated by the dinosaurs—and how Jurassic fossils discovered in China shed light on the earliest evolution of placental mammals. The Wednesday, February 27 program is part of the Evolution Matters Lecture Series, supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking for evening lectures in the 52 Oxford Street garage.

  • Tuesday, February 12, 6:00 pm – Looking for Signs of Evolution: Bees, Butterflies, and Bacteria

    Naomi Pierce, Hessel Professor of Biology and Curator of Lepidoptera at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, will speak Tuesday, February 12, beginning at 6 pm at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge on the topic Looking for Signs of Evolution: Bees, Butterflies, and Bacteria. Naomi Pierce examines the behavioral ecology of species interactions, such as insect/host plant associations, and the life history, evolution, and systematics of butterflies and other insects. Part of the Evolution Matters Lecture Series, supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. Free and open to the public.  Free event parking in the 52 Oxford Street garage.

  • Thursday, January 31, 6:00 pm – What Art Thou, Little Bird?

    We might think robins are simply a common backyard bird, but actually they represent one of the most unusual, successful, and abundant animals (the order Aves) in Earth’s history. The new science of evolutionary developmental biology (“evo-devo”) sheds fascinating light on the evolution of birds’ highly distinct skulls with toothless beaks, and on how modern birds can generate a seemingly endless array of beak shapes. Arkhat Abzhanov, Associate Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, will speak on Thursday, January 31, beginning at 6 pm on Developmental Mechanisms for the Origin and Evolution of Birds. Part of the Evolution Matters Lecture Series, supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking for evening lectures in the 52 Oxford Street garage.

  • Tuesday, January 29, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail

    The Arnold Arboretum will present When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail on Tuesday, January 29 in the Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, beginning at 6:30 pm. Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin will trace America’s fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. He will delve into the furious trade in furs, opium, and bêche-de-mer–a rare sea cucumber delicacy—which might have catalyzed America’s emerging economy, but also sparked an ecological and human rights catastrophe of such epic proportions that the reverberations can still be felt today. Hear about this period in history that preceded and spurred American botanical expeditions to China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fee $5 Arboretum member, $15 nonmember. Other books by Eric Jay Dolan include Fur, Fortune, and Empire, Leviathan, and Political Waters: The Long, Dirty, Contentious, Incredibly Expensive but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor.  Register on line at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.