Rhode Island Slave History Medallions works to tell the forgotten stories of Rhode Island’s free and enslaved African American and Indigenous peoples. Through a statewide initiative installing interactive markers at historic sites, RISHM engages in research, presents public educational programs, and builds community partnerships that bring awareness to Rhode Island’s dominant role in the institution of American slavery and the effects of that legacy today. Join Executive Director Charles Roberts to learn more about how these medallions honor untold stories and invite the public to engage with Rhode Island’s complex and often overlooked history.

Sponsored by the Richard & Barbara Bell Fund for Social Justice

Anyone who has visited Rome will recall the extraordinary benediction of water splashing and spraying everywhere. Like no other city, Rome is heartbreakingly generous—water gushes into fountains with reckless abandon and bubbles from hundreds of neighborhood taps. From Rome’s mythical founding during a Tiber River flood; its dramatic aqueducts marching across the Roman countryside from springs far outside the city; its glorious fountains; its spectacular villa gardens; to its smallest drinking fountains, Katherine Rinne’s Walking Rome’s Waters allows readers to follow water as it ripples, swirls, and flows propelled by gravity across nearly 3000 years of Rome’s urban history. To surrender to water’s inexorable forward journey is to track the flow of history; to sense the emerging shape of the ancient city morphing into medieval, Renaissance, and modern Rome; to understand the complex geology and the highs and lows of topography; to derive pure enjoyment; to enter Rome’s repository of memory; and to embrace water’s sacred spirit.

Book sale and signing to follow.

Curt DiCamillo’s A British Country House Alphabet: A Historical & Pictorial Journey is a new series of three volumes that will enchant seasoned country house visitors—and amaze those new to art and architecture—as they read about surprising snippets of history that occurred at, or because of, country houses in England, Scotland, or Wales.

The series uses the alphabet to frame the astonishing variety of material, with the first volume covering letters “A” through “H.” Each volume contains fascinating content and beautiful illustrations, presenting famous historical events or cultural innovations that are associated with specific British country houses. The engaging—and often humorous—text is the manifestation of DiCamillo’s long-standing love of the British country house, which has served as a stage and backdrop to a host of beguiling stories.

Henry Christophe (1767 – 1820), the controversial revolutionary and only king of Haiti, is one of the most richly complex figures in the history of the Americas, and was, in his time, popular and famous the world over. In The First and Last King of Haiti, award-winning Yale scholar Marlene L. Daut unravels this still controversial enigma.

Slave, revolutionary, king, Henry Christophe was, in his time, popular and famous the world over. Born to an enslaved mother on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Christophe first fought to overthrow the British in North America, before helping his fellow enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was then called, to end slavery. Yet in an incredible twist of fate, Christophe began fighting with Napoleon’s forces against the formerly enslaved men and women he had once fought alongside. Later, reuniting with those he had abandoned, he offered to lead them and made himself their king. But it all came to a sudden and tragic end when Christophe—after nine years of his rule as King Henry I—shot himself in the heart, some say with a silver bullet.

But why did Christophe turn his back on Toussaint Louverture and the very revolution with which his name is so indelibly associated? How did it come to pass that Christophe found himself accused of participating in the plot to assassinate Haiti’s first ruler, Dessalines? And what caused Haiti to eventually split into two countries, one ruled by Christophe in the north and the other led by President Pétion in the south?
Drawing from a trove of previously overlooked sources to paint a captivating history of his life and the awe-inspiring kingdom he built, Daut offers a fresh perspective on a figure long overshadowed by caricature and cliché. Peeling back the layers of myth and misconception reveals a man driven by both noble ideals and profound flaws, as unforgettable as he is enigmatic. More than just a biography, The First and Last King of Haiti is a masterful exploration of power, ambition, and the human spirit. From his pivotal role in the Haitian Revolution to his coronation as king and eventual demise, this book is testament to the enduring allure of those who dare to defy the odds and shape the course of nations.

Sponsored by the Richard & Barbara Bell Fund for Social Justice

America was once a country that did big things—we built the world’s greatest rail network, a vast electrical grid, interstate highways, abundant housing, the Social Security system, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and more. But today, even while facing a host of pressing challenges—a housing shortage, a climate crisis, a dilapidated infrastructure—we feel stuck, unable to move the needle. Why?

America is today the victim of a vetocracy that allows nearly anyone to stifle progress. While conservatives deserve some blame, progressives have overlooked an unlikely culprit: their own fears of “The Establishment.” A half-century ago, progressivism’s designs on getting stuff done were eclipsed by a desire to box in government. Reformers put speaking truth to power ahead of exercising that power for good. The ensuing gridlock has pummeled faith in public institutions of all sorts, stifled the movement’s ability to deliver on its promises, and, most perversely, opened the door for MAGA-style populism.

A century ago, Americans were similarly frustrated—and progressivism pointed the way out. The same can happen again. In Why Nothing Works, Marc J. Dunkelman vividly illustrates what progressives must do if they are going to break through today’s paralysis and restore, once again, confidence in democratically elected government. To get there, reformers will need to acknowledge where they’ve gone wrong. Progressivism’s success moving forward hinges on the movement’s willingness to rediscover its roots.

Embark on a daring voyage with Peter Girguis, Guest Curator and Harvard Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, into the depths of human imagination at the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s new special exhibition, Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination. Featuring ancient mariners’ maps, literature, works of art, and natural history specimens, this exhibit explores the allure of serpents, krakens, and other monsters of the deep. Peer into the minds of scholars from centuries past, and study sea creatures whose real lives are often more astonishing than the fantastical beings we might have imagined. Join us in unraveling the mysteries of the deep sea and the human psyche, where sea monsters—both real and imagined—beckon us to explore the unknown.

In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist and bestselling author Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food.

Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures” (Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.

Please note, only the moderated Q&A portion of this program will be recorded and archived on our website.

Associate curator Emily Banas explores The Art of French Wallpaper Design (November 15, 2024 – May 11, 2025), a celebration of the RISD Museum’s extraordinary collection of French 18th and 19th century wallpapers. The histories of design, production, and use of these papers is told through the lens of RISD’s Huard Collection, a group of approximately 500 wallpapers, borders, fragments, and design drawings that were all collected by one couple and acquired by the museum in 1934.

Please note, only the moderated Q&A portion of this program will be recorded and archived on our website.

Latin may be a “dead” language, but it’s all around us—in science, philosophy, religion, and literature. From “carpe diem” to the more obscure “alea iacta est,” classicist Maia Lee-Chin explains the fascinating origins of many Latin phrases still in use—as well as those that have been lost to the ages.

A beautiful object as well as a useful reference book, Et Cetera brings ancient knowledge and culture to life for readers of the 21st century. Each entry includes a direct translation, attribution, origin, and a striking, full-page illustration by Italian artist Marta Bertello.

Book sale and signing to follow.

Author and NYT obituary writer Margalit Fox unearths the compelling story behind America’s first great organized-crime lord – a nice Jewish mother named Mrs. Mandelbaum.

In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth?

In the intervening years, “Marm” Mandelbaum had become the country’s most notorious “fence”—a receiver of stolen goods—and a criminal mastermind. By the mid-1880s as much as $10 million worth of purloined luxury goods (nearly $300 million today) had passed through her Lower East Side shop. Called “the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime,” she planned robberies of cash, gold and diamonds throughout the country.

But Mrs. Mandelbaum wasn’t just a successful crook: she was a business visionary—one of the first entrepreneurs in America to systemize the scattershot enterprise of property crime. Handpicking a cadre of the finest bank robbers, housebreakers and shoplifters, she handled logistics and organized supply chains—turning theft into a viable, scalable business.

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum paints a vivid portrait of Gilded Age New York—a city teeming with nefarious rogues, capitalist power brokers and Tammany Hall big-wigs, all straddling the line between underworld enterprise and “legitimate” commerce. Combining deep historical research with the narrative flair for which she is celebrated, Margalit Fox tells the unforgettable true story of a once-famous heroine whose life exemplifies America’s cherished rags-to-riches narrative while simultaneously upending it entirely.

Book sale and signing to follow.