David McCullough Discusses The Legacy of John Adams at the American Academy
When:
Wednesday, March 13th, 5:30 p.m.
Where:
The Memorial Church
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
In 1779, John Adams returned to Massachusetts from his first tour
of duty in France. During the following year, while the Revolutionary War still
raged, Adams established the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Inspired by the French Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, Adams founded the
American Academy to promote the ideals that he had previously articulated in
the Massachusetts Constitution: to provide education and to "cherish" the
interests of the arts, sciences, commerce, trade and natural history. Today,
the American Academy remains a living monument to the intellectual and
educational goals that John Adams laid out more than two centuries ago.
To honor the close relationship between the American Academy and
John Adams, on March 13th acclaimed historian and author David McCullough
will discuss "John Adams and The Good Life of the Mind" at the Academy's
1856th Stated Meeting. McCullough's 2001 biography of the 2nd President of the
United States has become an international bestseller while prompting a greater
appreciation for both Adams's personal character and his goals for the new
nation. At the same time, the Academy is installing John Singleton Copley's
1783 portrait of John Adams, the only known life-size portrait of Adams. Copley
himself was an early Academy Fellow. The painting is on loan from the Harvard
University Collections. Louis W. Cabot, Vice President of the Academy,
will preside over the meeting and Academy Fellow Pauline Maier, William
R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and author of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence,
will introduce McCullough.
Participants:
David McCullough, David McCullough is a world-renowned author, speaker,
editor, and historian. He is twice winner of the National Book Award and twice
winner of the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize. He received the Pulitzer Prize
for Truman, and has written books on the Johnstown Flood, the Panama
Canal and the young Theodore Roosevelt. He is a familiar presence on public
television, as host of "Smithsonian World" and "The American Experience," and
as a narrator of documentaries, including "The Civil War" and "Napoleon."
McCullough is an avid reader, traveler, and landscape painter. He is a Fellow
of the American Academy and a Proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum.
The American Academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams and other
scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance
the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and
virtuous people." The current membership of over 3,700 Fellows and 600 Foreign
Honorary Members includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize
winners. Drawing on the wide-ranging expertise of its membership, the Academy
conducts thoughtful, innovative, non-partisan studies on international
security, social policy, education, and the humanities.
For more information please call our Events Office at (617)
576-5040.
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