April 3-6, 2011
Biltmore Estate
The House that George Built: Creating Biltmore Estate
When George Washington Vanderbilt built his Great House at Biltmore, he turned to the two great contemporary masters of design: Architict Richard Morris Hunt and Landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmstead. The story of their collaboration with Vanderbilt to create America’s grandest private residence is a story of wish fulfillment of the highest order. Like the soup to nuts menu of a Biltmore Dinner Party, this program of illustrated lecture and unique guided tours is a banquet of information and insight, from project conception to culmination.
Dr. John M. Bryan taught Art and Architectural History for 34 years as a member of the faculty at the University of South Carolina. In 2005 he retired from the University as Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Department of Art and Architecture. He holds a B.A. degree from The University of South Carolina, M.A. degrees from The University of Washington, and Boston University, and the Ph.D. in American Art and Architectural History also from Boston University. He has published numerous books and articles in France, England and the United States on the subjects of Art, Art History and Architectural History, including G. W. Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place. Working with the American Institute of Architects and The Biltmore Corporation, he wrote “Creating Biltmore” and organized a nationally touring exhibition to celebrate Biltmore's centennial. Dr. Bryan has received numerous honors and awards in recognition of achievements in his fields of expertise, including an Honorary American Institute of Architects award, and the Order of the Palmetto - South Carolina's highest civilian award. His work has been funded by the Smithsonian Institution, NEA, NEH and many other foundations.
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Dr. John M. Bryan
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August 15-19, 2011
Lake Logan Center
The Age of Atlantic Revolutions, 1775-1825
This program will examine the revolutionary upheavals that spread across the Atlantic world between 1775 and 1825, creating independent nations, democracies, and conceptions of human rights that continue to influence the modern world. Each session will focus on specific events, ideas, and leaders in the American, French, and Latin American Revolutions, all of which challenged traditional political hierarchies and claimed to represent the sovereignty of national populations. Our discussions will analyze the similarities and differences in these revolutions and consider the transnational influence of people such as George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Simon Bolivar. How did the American Revolution influence the later revolutions in France and Latin America? How did specific economic, social, and cultural conflicts contribute to the Atlantic revolutions? How do the ideas of this revolutionary era still resonate in our own time? These are the kinds of questions and comparative themes that we will explore through a wide-ranging series of lectures and discussions.
Lloyd S. Kramer is a professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he also serves as chair of the History Department. He has been teaching European and global history in Chapel Hill since 1986; and he is a past recipient of both the Johnston Teaching Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. He is the author of several books, including Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions and the forthcoming Nationalism in Europe and America: Politics, Cultures, and Identities since 1775. Dr. Kramer earned his BA degree at Maryville College, MA at Boston College, and Ph.D. at Cornell University.
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Dr. Lloyd S. Kramer
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August 22-26, 2011
Lake Logan Center
The Majesty of the Law
In this colloquium, we will examine the origin and sources of law, with particular reference to the American legal tradition. Part of America’s English heritage was a six-hundred-year-old legal system based primarily on decisions made by judges, applying “the common law.” A compound of ancient custom, sporadic legislation, and occasional reform, this system was transported to the English colonies in North America. Confronting the challenges, not just of a new environment, but eventually of a new political system based on written constitutions, the common law proved remarkably adaptable. Over the course of two and a half centuries, a growing number of statutes led to the complex interaction between common law, constitutions, and legislation that has created the dynamic system in operation today.
For a synopsis of this course, click here
John V. Orth is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received the A.B. degree from Oberlin College, the J.D., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. After completing law school and graduate school, Orth clerked for Judge John J. Gibbons of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He is the author of The Judicial Power of the United States: The Eleventh Amendment in American History (1987), Combination and Conspiracy: The Legal History of Trade Unionism, 1721-1906 (1991), The North Carolina State Constitution: A Reference Guide (1993), Due Process of Law: A Brief History (2003), and How Many Judges Does it Take to Make a Supreme Court? and Other Essays on Law and the Constitution (2006), as well as of numerous scholarly articles and book reviews. His areas of expertise are Constitutional Law, Legal History and Property Law. |
Dr. John V. Orth
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