Boston Flora

Tag: Smithsonian Associates

  • Mondays, January 9, February 6, and March 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – The Geology of Western National Parks, Online

    Join geologist Kirt Kempter as he explores the geology of Western National Parks over the course of 2023, with an in-depth look at one location every month. Each Smithsonian Associates’ program’s content is enhanced by geologic maps, photos, and Google Earth imagery.

    Please Note: Individual sessions are available for purchase. Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of each session.

    January 9  Big Bend, Texas

    Kempter explores the volcanic underpinnings of this stunning national park in West Texas. Volcanic rocks and landforms reveal the park’s explosive past, and are superimposed on deposits from the Cretaceous Sea, which once connected the Gulf of Mexico with the Arctic Ocean for more than 30 million years. The park includes the largest protected area of Chihuahuan desert ecology in the United States, protecting 1,200 plant species and 450 species of birds. The Rio Grande, which defines the park’s southern border, has carved impressive canyons through these Cretaceous Sea limestone deposits. 

    February 6  Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands

    Southern New Mexico is home to these two iconic national parks, which oddly share a connection from the deep geologic past. Shimmering white dunes of gypsum sand define White Sands—the largest deposit of its kind on Earth—which hosts 45 endemic species living only in the park. The gypsum’s origin comes from limestone deposits preserved in the surrounding mountains, originally laid down by inland seas during the Late Paleozoic era. Approximately 260 million years ago, the seas’ coastlines were ringed by an extensive reef composed predominantly of sponges, bryozoans, and other microorganisms. Today at Carlsbad Caverns, this once deeply buried reef hosts a vast network of caves, passages, and spectacular speleothems, including the Big Room, the largest chamber in the United States. 

    March 6  Grand Canyon, Arizona

    A mile-thick package of sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic Era is spectacularly exposed from the Grand Canyon’s rim to bottom. Each layer has a story to tell, revealing ancient oceans, rivers, and sand dunes that reflect drastically changing environments through geologic time. Kempter explores and interprets ancient Precambrian rocks now exposed in the inner gorge, along with a boundary known as the Great Unconformity, where more than a billion years of rock information is missing. When and how did the Colorado River carve the Grand Canyon? These questions, which are still being debated by geologists, are addressed in the program. 

    The package of three is $60 for Smithsonian Associates members, $75 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org

  • Friday, January 6, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm Eastern – Frederic Church’s Olana: A Masterwork of American Landscape and Design, Online

    Frederic Church (1826–1900) was America’s preeminent landscape artist of the 19th century, whose “great paintings”of the 1850s and 1860s (Niagara, Heart of the Andes, Icebergs) achieved international acclaim. Beginning in 1860, he spent the last 40 years creating Olana in Hudson, New York, a 250-acre designed landscape in which his family residence and farm are sited and whose panoramic views of the Hudson Valley and Catskills are integral elements.

    Today, Olana is the most intact artist’s environment in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. Sean Sawyer, president of the Olana Partnership, provides an overview of Church’s creation and leads a virtual tour of the landscape and main house, with its rich collection of fine and decorative arts that reflect the global reach of Church’s travels and vision. He also shares the remarkable story of the saving of Olana, a landmark in American preservation history. This Smithsonian Associates program will be held on Zoom and is $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org

  • Thursday, December 1, 12:00 noon – Maria Sibylla Merian: A Biologist to the Bone, Online

    The aesthetic appeal of the images created by Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647-1717) has led history to label her as an artist who painted and etched natural history subjects. However, Merian was as passionate a naturalist (biologist in modern terms) as Charles Darwin or Carl Linnaeus, and like all scientists, she was impelled by her curiosity about nature.

    Merian was the first person to spend decades studying the relationships of insects and plants, and her work revolutionized what came to be the field of ecology. Kay Etheridge, professor emeritus of biology at Gettysburg College, draws on Merian’s own words to consider her motivations in the context of her time and place, and discusses Merian’s body of work in comparison to that of her near-contemporaries working in natural history. The Smithsonian Associates online lecture takes place December 1 beginning at noon and is $20 for Smithsonian members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org.

  • Sunday, November 20, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm – How to Find an Owl in Your Neighborhood, Online

    Did you know that there is a top-of-the-food-chain predator likely living in your neighborhood? This animal moves silently at speeds of 20 to 40 miles per hour and eats animals twice its size. Not a bear or mountain lion or coyote, it is a Great Horned Owl, found in every state except Hawaii and in almost every habitat you can imagine.

    Owls are incredibly adaptable animals and several species are regularly found where humans live. But their amazing camouflage, nocturnal habits, and silent flight often make them hidden to us. Join Mark H.X. Glenshaw, aka the “Owl Man,”  to learn how you can find these amazing and beautiful animals and other owls right in your neighborhood.

    As part of his outreach work as an urban naturalist in St. Louis, Glenshaw helps people locate owls in their subdivisions, city neighborhoods, pocket parks, or large public parks. He discusses the owls you are most likely to see or hear, where and how to look for them, and the importance of research and collaboration in the study of owls.

    A certified Missouri Master Naturalist, Glenshaw received the Citizen Scientist Award from the Academy of Science of St. Louis in 2006. This Smithsonian Associates webinar will be held on Zoom on November 20 from 3 – 4:30 pm. $20 for Smithsonian members. $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/owl-in-neighborhood

  • Wednesday, August 31, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm – How To Be a Conscious Eater, Online

    Is organic really worth it? Are eggs OK to eat? If so, which ones are best for you and for the chicken? What about farmed salmon, soy milk, sugar, gluten, fermented foods, coconut oil, almonds? Thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or somewhere in between?

    Sophie Egan, a food systems consultant and expert on food’s impact on human and environmental health, offers strategies to navigate the bewildering world of food. Being a conscious eater, says Egan, isn’t about diets, fads, or hard-and-fast rules. It’s about having straightforward, accurate information to make smart, thoughtful choices amid the chaos of conflicting news and marketing hype. She offers a practical guide to everyday eating that’s good for you, good for others, and good for the planet.  

    Egan’s 2020 book How to Be a Conscious Eater was named one of Bon Appétit’s Favorite New Books for Climate-Friendly Cooking and Life. This Smithsonian Associates webinar will take place August 31 at noon. $25 for Smithsonian members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org

  • Thursday, July 28, 6:45 pm – 8:15 pm – Good for the Land, Good for Us: How Farming Can Improve Human Health, Online

    Are you really only what you eat? David R. Montgomery, a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, and biologist and environmental planner Anne Biklé view human health as dependent on the health of the soil on farms, which ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us.

    The long-running partnerships through which crops and soil life nourish one another suffuse plant and animal foods in the human diet with an array of compounds and nutrients our bodies need to protect us from pathogens and chronic ailments. Unfortunately, say Montgomery and Biklé, conventional agricultural practices unravel these vital partnerships. Can farmers and ranchers produce enough nutrient-dense food to feed us all? Can we have quality and quantity?

    Drawing on their new book What Your Food Ate, Montgomery and Biklé examine why what’s good for the land is good for us, too. They reveal why regenerative farming practices, which strengthen the health and vitality of soil, can also offer untapped potential for improving human health. This Smithsonian Associates webinar on July 28 from 6:45 – 8:15 is $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Sign up, and learn how to purchase the book at a discount, at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/good-for-land-good-for-us

  • Sunday, July 17, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Online

    In the mid-18th century, George Washington purchased from a family member a small story-and-a-half wood frame house overlooking the Potomac River. Over the next four decades, he substantially rebuilt the house, reflecting his own evolving status from militia member to commander-in-chief of the Continental Army to the first president of the United States of America. 

    Historian Laura A. Macaluso traces the development of Mount Vernon from a traditional Virginia farmhouse to a splendid Georgian mansion decorated in color schemes done in the highest contemporary style. She covers highlights of the interior, including Washington’s painting collection of American waterways, the key to the Bastille, and his personal study, which reflects his love for technology, learning, and family.

    Macaluso addresses the workings of Mount Vernon both as a house and as part of an 8,000-acre plantation on which more than 300 enslaved men, women, and children lived and worked. She looks at Mount Vernon’s outbuildings and sites where that work took place, including gardens, orchard, greenhouse, and its Pioneer Farm, as well as Washington’s tomb and the cemetery for the enslaved. Surveying the environs of Mount Vernon, she discusses Washington’s gristmill and distillery and other plantation sites such as Muddy Hole and Woodlawn, which was built for Washington’s nephew and Martha Washington’s granddaughter, who married.

    She also follows the estate’s history after the Washingtons’ deaths at the turn of the 19th century, Mount Vernon’s fall into disrepair, and how an organization of women came together to begin caring for what became the first historic house museum in the United States.

    Macaluso is a cultural heritage specialist and author of A History Lover’s Guide to Alexandria and Fairfax County. This July 17 webinar is presented through Smithsonian Associates, and is $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org

  • Thursday, June 30, 6:45 pm – 8:15 pm – The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty, Online

    Everyone loves Sy Montgomery, New England based author of such books at The Soul of the Octopus. Join Smithsonian Associates online on June 30 for a very special Zoom evening with her.

    When author and naturalist Sy Montgomery spent a day at falconer Nancy Cowan’s New England farm, home to a dozen magnificent birds of prey, it was the start of a deep love affair. That’s when she met Jazz, a feisty, four-year-old female Harris’s hawk with a wingspan of more than four feet. Not a pet, Jazz was a fierce predator with talons that could pierce skin and bone, and yet she was willing to work with a human to hunt.

    Montgomery fell under the magnetic spell of the hawk, and over the next few years she spent more time with these creatures, getting to know their extraordinary abilities and instincts. Deeply emotional animals, hawks are quick to show anger and frustration and can hold a grudge for years. But they are also loyal and intensely aware of their surroundings. In a fascinating program highlighted by splendid color photos, Montgomery recalls her time in the world of hawks and shares what they can teach us about nature, life, and love. $20 for Smithsonian Associates members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/hawks-way

    Photo: Tianne Strombeck

  • Thursday, June 30, 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm – The Cradle of American Gardening: 300 Years of Philadelphia Horticultural History, Online

    We’ve now all watched PBS’s Benjamin Franklin biography, and apologies to the Arnold Arboretum, but the Philadelphia region is home to more significant private and public gardens than anywhere in the country and enjoys a tradition of horticulture that goes back to the city’s inception in the late 17th century.

    On June 30, the Smithsonian Associates and Nicole Juday Rhoads draw on two decades of study in historic horticulture to explore the cultural, political, economic, and even religious factors that influenced the surprising evolution of gardening and the establishment of world-class horticultural institutions in the region.

    Rhoads introduces some of the historical figures who left their mark on Philadelphia’s landscape, from William Penn and his vision of a “greene countrie towne”  to a sect of nature-worshipping, cave-dwelling Rosicrucians to the wealthiest plant collector in pre-Revolutionary America. $25 for Smithsonian Associates members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.smithsonianassociates.org

  • Wednesday, June 15, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Hardy Orchids 101, Online

    Orchids are perennial herbs that are native to every continent, except Antarctica. Hardy orchids are commonly those able to survive outdoors in winter. Learn how you can incorporate hardy orchids into your orchid collection and how to successfully grow them in your backyard. The June 15 Smithsonian Associates workshop features a demonstration on how to plant a Cypripedium orchid. The instructor is Barb Schmidt, and the class will be recorded. $30 for Smithsonian Associates members, $40 for nonmembers. Register, and access materials list, at www.smithsonianassociates.org.

    Pleione Tongariro