The Coming Storm: The Civil War and American Art” with Eleanor Jones Harvey, Ph.D.
This free public lecture, presented in the Witherspoon Concert Hall by Eleanor Jones Harvey, Ph.D., will examine the impact of the Civil War on American art, looking to photography and genre painting as a way of understanding the human cost of war and landscapes as an emotional barometer for the nation’s psyche during this turbulent period. Dr. Harvey grounds her discussion in the voices of the period: in the poems, speeches, sermons, and letters written by leading literary figures and common men and women who, like the artists, witnessed the conflict first hand. Dr. Harvey is Senior Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She earned a B.A. with distinction in art history from the University of Virginia (1983) and earned an M.A. (1985) and Ph.D. (1998) in the history of art from Yale University. Dr. Harvey served as the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Chief Curator from 2003-2012, overseeing its curatorial and conservation staffs and its acquisitions and collections programs. Her most recent project was the widely-praised exhibition The Civil War and American Art, which was on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2012-2013 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the summer of 2013. The accompanying book, available in Joslyn’s Hitchcock Museum Shop, won the Southeastern Book Festival Award for Best Art or Photography Book for 2012 and the Smithsonian Secretary’s Distinguished Research Award for 2014. The Graham and Sally Lusk Lecture invites acclaimed artists, scholars, and visionary thinkers in the field of art and creativity to engage and inspire audiences who wish to better understand and appreciate art from around the world and throughout time. The series was created through an estate gift from Graham Lusk, Ph.D., and honors both Graham and Sally’s commitment to the Museum. A graduate with a Bachelor in Science, Masters of Science, and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Graham Lusk was a lover of classical and operatic music, history, conservation of trees, and art. Sally Lusk has spent much of her life serving museums in a docent role — including at Joslyn Art Museum, where she was a docent for 25 years and served on the Docent Advisory Council.
