Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World

Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World, a new American Experience documentary by Ric Burns, is alive with the all-or-nothing ethos of the nineteenth-century whaleman. Drawing its central narrative arc from two of the most famous man-versus-whale tales of the era—the true, though at the time unthinkable, story of the Essex, a whaleship sunk [...]

Lecture: Egyptomania! James Henry Breasted and the Birth of American Egyptology

Emily Teeter lectured on the father of American Egyptology, James Henry Breasted, on Sunday, May 16, 1 pm at the Chicago Cultural Center (Claudia Cassidy Theater). Ms. Teeter, who holds a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago, is  research associate and special exhibits coordinator at the Oriental Institute. She is the author of [...]

Reading Dickens: news of Little Dorrit and A Christmas Carol

Hardcover or paperback? Until recently those were our reading options. As with everything else, whether it’s ice cream or television, things are much more complicated now. We are way beyond vanilla and chocolate, way beyond the corner bookstore and neighborhood library and into a multiplicity of forms and platforms and technologies and interfaces that could [...]

The Supper at Emmaus

Caravaggio’s famous painting is in Chicago through January 2010.  Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking to Emmaus after the Crucifixion when the resurrected Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but they did not recognise him. At supper that evening in Emmaus ‘… he took bread, and blessed it, and brake and gave to [...]

A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy

This exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan, November 6, 2009 through March 14, 2010, is organized into three sections: Austen’s life and personal letters, her works, and her legacy. The exhibit concludes with a documentary-style film. Manuscripts on display include: personal letters from Austen to her sister, Cassandra; the only complete surviving manuscript of a Jane [...]