March 2012 Public Programs Announced At N-Y Historical Society

The New-York Historical Society's museum is the oldest in New York City and predates the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by nearly seventy years.

Its art holdings comprise more than 1.6 million works. Among them are a world-class collection of Hudson River School paintings, including major works by Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church; iconic genre and history paintings including works by William Sidney Mount and Eastman Johnson; a vast range of American portraits, including paintings by Rembrandt Peale and Gilbert Stuart; all 435 of John James Audubon's extant preparatory watercolors for Birds of America; and an encyclopedic collection of more than 800 works documenting the full range of representational sculpture in America from the colonial period to the present day.

The Museum also holds much of sculptor Elie Nadelman's legendary American folk art collection, including furniture and household accessories such as lamps, candlesticks, textiles, glass and ceramic objects, as well as paintings, toys, weathervanes, sculptural woodcarvings and chalkware.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS:

For tickets to Public Programs and gallery tours, please call the New-York Historical Society's new call center at (212) 485-9268 or visit http://www.nyhistory.org/programs. Programs and walking tours $24 (Members $12) unless otherwise noted.

THE HAROLD AND Ruth Newman WORLD BEYOND TOMORROW SERIES:

STEVE JOBS

Tuesday, March 6, 6:30 PM

Admission $28 (Members $14)

Walter Isaacson

Location: Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West

Walter Isaacson tells the riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searing intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Steve Jobs stood as an icon of inventiveness and imagination. This program is part of a special series, conceived by Harold Newman, examining where we've been, where we are and the complexities and possibilities of the world beyond tomorrow.

THE BERNARD AND IRENE SCHWARTZ DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS SERIES:

THE DRAFT RIOTS, PART II

Thursday, March 15, 6:30 PM

Edna Greene Medford, Carla Peterson, Barnet Schecter, Harold Holzer (moderator)

Location: Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West

In the summer of 1863, in the simmering cauldron of New York City, tensions over the new Union draft law boiled over into a vicious, bloody, racially-motivated riot, the second-largest civil insurrection in American history after the Civil War itself. Experts examine the causes of the conflict, its sickening violence and the enduring legacy it left on New York.

CONQUERED INTO LIBERTY

Thursday, March 29, 6:30 PM

Eliot A. Cohen, Josiah Bunting III (moderator)

Location: Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West

For more than two centuries, beginning in the 1600s, five peoples – the British, French, Americans, Canadians and Native Americans – fought a series of fierce, bloody battles over the key to the North American continent: the corridor running from Albany to Montreal, dominated by the Champlain valley. Eliot A. Cohen and Josiah Bunting III tell the story of how woodland skirmishes and massacres, frontal assaults and shadowy covert actions shaped America's approach to geopolitics and war.

GALLERY TOURS:

MAKING AMERICAN TASTE: GALLERY TOUR

Monday, March 5, 11 AM

Linda S. Ferber

Location: New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, between 76^th and 77^thStreets

In the nineteenth century, the place of the arts in a democracy was a hotly debated topic in the United States. The exhibition Making American Taste: Narrative Art for a New Democracy integrates the broad range of styles and narrative themes – from history, literary and religious subjects to the more familiar rural and domestic genres – through which Americans were expected to attain cultural refinement. Join Senior Art Historian Linda S. Ferber for an intimate tour of the exhibition, featuring fifty-five works from the New-York Historical Society's collection. Gallery tours are limited to thirty-five guests per tour. Please buy tickets in advance.

INFORMATION HOTLINE:

To reach Museum's offices call: (212) 873-3400

ONLINE INFORMATION: www.nyhistory.org

MUSEUM AND STORE HOURS:

 Tuesday - Thursday: 10 am-6 pm
 Friday: 10 am-8 pm (pay as you wish from 6 pm-8 pm)
 Saturday: 10 am-6 pm
 Sunday: 11 am-5 pm

MUSEUM ADMISSION:

Adults - $15
Teachers and Seniors - $12
Students - $10
Children (7-13)- $5
Children (under 7) -free