American architects and architecture of the Gilded Age and beyond is the focus of the Preservation Society of Newport County’s 2021 online Winter Lecture Series – with one major detour to a palace in Prague.
All presentations will be given via Zoom Webinar. Attendance is free but registration is required through www.NewportMansions.org/learn/adult-programs.
• Thursday, February 11, 5:30 p.m. ET: “Horace Trumbauer Remembered” with Trudy Coxe, CEO and executive director, The Preservation Society of Newport County.
Who was the man who created such beautiful buildings as The Elms, Miramar and Stonybrook here on Aquidneck Island as well as many others around the country? Coxe will delve into the life, work and legacy of Horace Trumbauer, a master of Gilded Age architecture, and show examples of Trumbauer’s work that illustrate the breadth of his genius and the range of his clientele. During the question-and-answer period, John Grosvenor, architect, artist and historian, will join Coxe to share his extensive architectural knowledge and experience.
• Thursday, February 25, 5:30 p.m. ET: “Julian Abele: Architect and the Beaux Arts” with Dreck Spurlock Wilson, president of the Landscape Consortium Ltd. in Washington, D.C., and senior construction program manager at Delon Hampton & Associates, Engineers.
Julian Abele was one of the first African-American architects to be accredited. Despite racial segregation at the beginning of the 20th century, Abele received his architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and designed more than 200 buildings throughout his career, including the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University and the Philadelphia Free Library. He is also credited with designing the Sunken Garden at The Elms in Newport.
• Thursday, March 11, 5:30 p.m. ET: “Americans in Paris: Foundations of America’s Architectural Gilded Age” with Margot M. Ellis, architectural historian.
“Americans in Paris” tells the story of the American architecture students who attended the École des Beaux-Arts in France and went on to design many of our nation’s most prestigious buildings and monuments. American alumni of this world-renowned school include Richard Morris Hunt, Guy Lowell, John Russell Pope, Julia Morgan, Julian Abele and many others.
• Thursday, March 25, 12 noon ET: “Virtual Tour of the Lobkowicz Palace Collections, Prague” with William Rudolf Lobkowicz.
A descendant of one of Bohemia’s most prominent noble families will conduct a tour of the Lobkowicz Collections, which feature famous paintings by Canaletto, Bruegel and Velázquez, as well as manuscripts by Mozart and Beethoven. William Rudolf Lobkowicz will share how the family returned to its native country after displacement by the Nazi and Communist regimes and reclaimed its confiscated possessions with the mission to preserve, study and share them with the world.
• Thursday, March 25, 5:30 p.m. ET: “The American Country Place Era” with Leslie B. Jones, Director of Museum of Affairs and Chief Curator, The Preservation Society of Newport County.
Learn about the era of architecture that followed the end of the Gilded Age circa 1900. The American Country Place Era marked a subtle yet definable shift as wealth expanded across the nation, cities grew and industry boomed. It was distinguished by a proclivity for historical revival styles in architecture and landscape design. Leslie Jones will illustrate her talk with various examples from Massachusetts to Tennessee.