Crap Taxidermy
A humorous look at what happens when taxidermy goes terribly wrong.
We’ll let the pictures do the talking. Don’t miss this tongue-in-cheek yet informative lecture about the art of stuffing an animal.
Free Lecture: Royal Art of Poison
The Royal Art of Poison
Novelist Eleanor Herman joins our lecture series to give us historical scoop on by-gone royalty. Her book, The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul gives glittering, juicy accounts of what went on in some of Europe’s most glamorous palaces. With her unique access to royal archives, she combines cutting-edge forensics to tell the true stories. Medical mysteries, poisonous cosmetics, ever-present excrement, festering natural illness, and, sometimes, murder. Don’t miss it!
Free Lecture: Difficult Truths at Monticello
One Mountain, Many Stories: Difficult Truths at Monticello
The McFaddin-Ward House is proud to present One Mountain, Many Stories: Difficult Truths at Monticello. This lecture features Monticello Museum’s own Niya Bates who was instrumental in getting the story of Sally Hemings written into its chapters. Bates is the director of African American History at Monticello and director of the African American Oral History Project known as Getting Word. Ms. Bates will discuss the challenges she and others faced in getting difficult truths incorporated into the museum where America’s Thomas Jefferson once lived.
For more information about Getting Word go to https://www.monticello.org/getting-word.
Information about the Sally Hemings exhibit can be found at https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/
Free Lecture: Bed, Breakfast and Beyond
Bed, Breakfast and Beyond,
Memoirs of a Horse Wrangler and Other Great Rides…
This month’s guest speaker runs an interesting Bed and Breakfast called Fairwinds Farm and Stables in North East, MD…among many other things. She writes books, acts in famous movies and handles horses too. JoAnn Dawson is an animal wrangler for television and film, and has held principle acting roles in The Sixth Sense, 12 Monkeys, and Oprah Winfrey’s Beloved, among several. She is the author of the award-winning Lucky Foot Stable series for ages 8 – 12. Now she’s written a memoir chronicling the highs and lows of operating a farm-based Bed and Breakfast.
Ms. Dawson headlines our 2019 McFaddin-Ward House 2019 Lecture Series with enthusiasm and gusto. Please join us in welcoming her. Doors open at 6:00.
Free Lecture – DNA Kits: Who’s Been Climbing Your Tree?
DNA: the New Way to Meet Your Relatives
A hundred years ago when Ida Caldwell McFaddin researched her family’s genealogy, she may have become frustrated. The methods were not easy at that time; she no doubt painstakingly poured through hundreds, if not thousands of family documents and government records to trace her family ties.
How wonderful that times have changed! We have the internet AND over-the-counter DNA kits to help. Millions of people are racing to buy commercial DNA kits these days which is opening the door for millions to learn about family history, anscestry, and medical information.
Join us this month as we welcome the founder of the world’s first commercial DNA kit, Family Tree DNA. Bennett Greenspan will speak about the new popularity of DNA science and how it’s helping people around the globs to discover their roots.
Come early. We expect a crowd and there is no saving seats. Doors open at 6:00.
Free Lecture: The Essence of Tom Lea
Who is Tom Lea?
Painter. Life Magazine War Artist. War correspondent. Author. Romantic. Friend. Texan Tom Lea lived a long, illustrious life to the age of 93. Despite his accomplishments, Tom Lea was largely unknown outside Texas when he died on January 29, 2001. His work had taken him to every continent, but he always returned home to El Paso far from current fashions and art world trends. Tom Lea never sought the approval of a critic or the favor of a museum director. He placed the majority of his paintings after World War II in the private collections of his personal friends.
Adair Margo to Speak at McFaddin-Ward House
Adair Margo will speak to a probable packed house at the Visitor Center on October 13th, 2016. She has devoted her life to the telling the world about Tom Lea. Founder of the Tom Lea Institute, Margo is a champion of the arts herself. She is former Chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities under George W. Bush. She shared a life-long friendship with Tom Lea, but it was after recording his oral history that her appreciation grew deeper. Margo serves on numerous prestigious arts boards, and she has devoted her life to the legacy of Tom Lea.
We are honored to have Ms. Margo speak at our museum. We invite the public to hear her remarkable lecture and to attend the reception that follows.
For more information about the artist and the speaker, please go to http://tomlea.com/
Free Lecture: Tiffany Art Glass Expert to Speak at Museum
Tiffany Art Glass
The McFaddin-Ward House is proud to bring a Tiffany Art Glass expert to its 2016 Lecture Series. Paul Doros authored a book called The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany describing some of the artist’s most celebrated pieces. He will speak about Tiffany at an upcoming lecture on September 22 at the McFaddin-Ward House Visitor Center.
Who was Louis Comfort Tiffany?
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts. Artists and collectors know him best for his work in stained glass, and historians associate Tiffany most often with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements. He considered his Favrile glass his signature artistic achievement which he produced between the 1890s and 1920s. Now highly collectible, the glass underscores one-of-a-kind quality. Tiffany’s glass workers blew and decorated each piece by hand.
Paul Doros’ book explores the full range of Tiffany Studios’ diverse and innovative styles. In his talk, Doros will showcase photographs of Tiffany’s world-class pieces. He will highlight a variety of unique masterpieces like the delicate Flowerform vases and the dramatic Lava vases. Doros will also give a history of the Tiffany glasshouse where gifted glass workers and scientists worked. He will show never-before-published documents and archival photographs of Tiffany and his family. The Art Glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany showcases the mastery and vision behind remarkable works.
About the Speaker
Paul Doros is a renowned scholar on the life and work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. He was the first curator of glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art, located in Norfolk, Virginia, and authored the 1978 publication, The Tiffany Collection of the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk. Experts widely consider this collection the finest of Tiffany blown vessels that any public institution holds. He went on to work in the Twentieth Century Decorative Arts Department of Christie’s from 1978 to 1988. Paul hosts The Tiffany Studios Resource Center web site (tiffanystudios.org) and has even appeared in a segment of the PBS program “History Detectives.”
You may meet Mr. Doros after the his lecture at a reception which the museum will hold in his honor.
For more information about the book and the author, please go to http://www.tiffanystudios.org/
Free Lecture: Glensheen – Minnesota’s House Museum
Chances are, the reason you’re reading this is because you LOVE historic homes, right? Or maybe you simply like our free lectures and receptions. Regardless, we have a special evening planned with a very entertaining speaker. Please join us as we welcome historic house museum director, Dan Hartman, who will take us on a “tour” of the Glensheen House. The Glensheen is Minnesota’s most visited historic home and one of the most opulent in the country today. As with the McFaddin-Ward House, the Gleensheen was built in 1905, and the collection is still intact! This presentation offers one of those rare chances to fully immerse ourselves in the splendor and authenticity of the elegance of a bygone era.
As always, this event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Lecture begins at 6:30 p.m.