Listen to this conversation with Chrysler Museum of Art curator Seth Feman and Columbus Museum curator Jonathan Frederick Walz — we discuss the art and life of the extraordinary American artist Alma Woodsey Thomas. Seth and Jonathan are co-curators of the major traveling exhibition Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful
Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden— In January 1830, a year after David Walker published his Appeal, fifty-one-year-old George M. Erskine of Tennessee set sail for the newly settled colony of Liberia. With him aboard the brig Liberia were his wife Hagar, fifty; seven of their eight children—Jane, thirty; Wallace, twenty-one; Mary, seventeen; Weir,
Laura Muir— The story of how an unusual coffee and tea service made its way from Weimar, Germany, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, is both remarkable and emblematic of the way in which Harvard University’s extensive Bauhaus collection came into being. Founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius and closed just
Early this summer, we proudly released Duo Duo’s new collection of poems, Words as Grain. Lucas Klein, editor and translator of the career-spanning anthology, notes in his introduction that the poet’s early work has often been seen as an expression of the era, yet his poetry “has never been reducible
Shaila Seshia Galvin— These days, the word organic typically conjures notions of food that is natural, pure, and ecologically produced. Recent decades have seen the rapid expansion of organic agriculture, with the amount of land area under certification, the number of producers, and the volume of sales all witnessing rapid
Joseph Turow— Public attention to the voice industry has centered primarily on smart speakers. Dubbed “voice first” devices by marketers, these are cylinders (or more recently other shapes) that sometimes come with screens. Ask a question or make a request, and the devices can access a huge number of information
Jennifer A. Quigley— People today don’t usually think of going to the bank, buying groceries, and signing a lease as religious acts, but in the ancient world, they very often were. While many people today tend to think of religion and the economy as distinct, in the ancient Greco-Roman world,
Kathryn Tanner— The Protestant ethic was the spirit of industrial capitalism in its Fordist varieties, where investments sunk in expensive equipment dedicated to the production of one thing meant mass production and mass consumption. That Protestant ethic was composed of a set of values in which hard work was a
Brandon Ruud— The catalogue for the exhibition Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820–1920 was a labor of love, a treat to produce, and, especially, a visual feast thanks to the number of objects and the generosity of so many lenders willing to include some of their greatest masterpieces. The book’s