Boston Flora

Tag: Temple University

  • Monday, October 16 – Saturday, October 21 – A Tour of Florence (Reservation Deadline March 6)

    This autumn, October 16 – 21, join The Royal Oak Foundation for a special tour in Florence. The cradle of the Renaissance, Florence was endowed with magnificent buildings and works of art by the illustrious Medici dynasty. Exploring the city, we will appreciate the endless fascination which it has held for British and American travelers and residents, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

    Highlights will include admiring Cosimo de Medici’s library of manuscripts in the monastery of San Marco, exclusive visits to Villa La Pietra, home and art collection of the late Sir Harold Acton, and to a villa set in a vast garden – landscaped in the English style – as well as hosted dinners at two of the great Florentine Renaissance palaces.

    Traveling with Royal Oak Heritage Circle members is Frank Dabell. Mr. Dabell is a specialist in the Italian Renaissance and teaches history of art at Temple University’s program in Rome, where he has lived for 20 years. Educated in England at Shrewsbury School, he is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and a former Fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and lectures for the Met and other museums throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, including past journeys on Sea Cloud II where the Royal Oak Foundation was the co-sponsor with the Met. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and was recently on the advisory committee for the restoration of Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection in Sansepolcro. Deadline to reserve is March 6. View the Brochure and details at https://www.royal-oak.org//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ROF-FlorenceBrochure.pdf

  • Wednesday, January 26, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm – Lost on the Freedom Trail: The National Park Service and Urban Renewal in Postwar Boston, Online

    Boston National Historical Park is one of America’s most popular heritage destinations, drawing in millions of visitors annually. Tourists flock there to see the site of the Boston Massacre, to relive Paul Revere’s midnight ride, and to board Old Ironsides—all of these bound together by the iconic Freedom Trail, which traces the city’s revolutionary saga. Seth C. Bruggeman of Temple University discusses the Freedom Trail’s role for tourism, how it was devised to lure affluent white Americans into downtown revival schemes, its success hinging on a narrow vision of the city’s history run through with old stories about heroic white men. When Congress pressured the National Park Service to create this historical park for the nation’s bicentennial celebration in 1976, these ideas seeped into its organizational logic, precluding the possibility that history might prevail over gentrification and profit. Professor Bruggeman will present his book on January 26 online through the Massachusetts Historical Society, and then be joined by experts with knowledge of the Freedom Trail today and in the past. Free. Register to attend online

  • Tower Hill Botanic Garden Announces Appointment of Grace Elton as CEO

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden is pleased to announce that Grace Elton will become CEO of the Boylston-based nonprofit this spring.

    Elton has been the director of horticulture at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Va., since 2011, where she has established herself as a forward-thinking leader of one of the nation’s premier gardens.  Among Elton’s achievements at Lewis Ginter are a new apiary with demonstration beehives, partnerships to grow hops for a local brewery and expansion of a vegetable garden which contributes produce for an area food bank, and the planting of Lewis Ginter’s first native plant garden.

    A Florida native, Elton was first turned on to the importance of plants as a child living in Everglades National Park, where her parents worked. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Interdisciplinary Studies with a specialization in public garden management from the University of Florida and a Masters in Public Horticulture from the Longwood Graduate Program of the University of Delaware. After experiences interning at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, Elton returned to the UK to work with five separate gardens as a recipient of the Garden Club of America’s prestigious Martin McLaren Horticulture Scholarship.

    Prior to joining Lewis Ginter, Elton served as adjunct professor and arboretum supervisor at the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University.  Currently, she serves on the Board of the American Public Gardens Association, the leading association for professionals in public horticulture.

    Elton will succeed interim CEO Suzanne Maas. Maas has led Tower Hill since the departure of Kathy Abbott, who in May 2016 returned to her roots in Boston to work on waterfront and harbor issues.

    Elton will join Tower Hill during a period of tremendous growth for the organization, which welcomed 137,000 visitors and celebrated its 30th year at its Boylston location in 2016. This year is the 175th anniversary of Tower Hill’s parent organization, the Worcester County Horticultural Society. Tower Hill is also offering more programs and welcoming more members than ever before. Elton will take the reins as the organization moves closer to implementing the first phases of its new Master Plan, which calls for more gardens and programs for visitors to enjoy.

    Tower Hill Botanic Garden is a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting plants and people. Its mission is to inspire the use and appreciation of horticulture to improve lives, enrich communities and strengthen commitment to the natural world. The Tower Hill property includes 15 gardens, an historic apple orchard, a restaurant, gift shop, conservatories, library, and art galleries, as well as year-round programs for all ages.