The Visual Culture of Activism in Beacon Hill through the Harriet Hayden Albums
When:
Thursday, Jun 10, 2021 12:30p -
1:00p
Thursday, Jun 10, 2021 12:30p -
1:00p
Where:
Online event
Admission:
$7-15
Categories:
Art, History, Lectures & Conferences, Social Good, Virtual & Streaming
Event website:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-visual-culture-of-activism-in-beacon-hill-the-harriet-hayden-albums-tickets-157251227655
This is the first program in our summer lunch-time series. Take a 30-minute break and explore Boston History outside the predominant historical lens.
Harriet Bell Hayden (1816-1893) was a survivor of slavery and an anti-slavery activist living on Beacon Hill. Her set of nineteenth-century photo albums are clues to her direct involvement in the abolitionist movement and the societal status that yielded. Join Theo Tyson, Polly Thayer Starr Fellow in American Art and Culture at the Boston Athenaeum as she shares her insights and inquiries on the albums. Using fashion and visual culture, Tyson will discuss ways of seeing that offer a glimpse into the lived experiences and connections of Mrs. Hayden’s multicultural and intergenerational Beacon Hill community.
theo tyson is a curator who invites conversations about the sociocultural implications of race, gender, identity, and sexuality through a lens of fashion and culture. She creates spaces of reclamation to share powerful stories of Black womxn and those on the LGBTQI+ spectrum. Her curatorial practice privileges noncanonical ways of seeing, giving audiences poignant new perspectives to view their human connection to the materiality of expression.
Currently, she is the Polly Thayer Starr Fellow in American Art and Culture at the Boston Athenæum. Her previous posts include Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film.
Tickets are sliding scale; please pay what you are able. If non-members would like to attend for less than $7, please contact [email protected] for accommodation.
This image is a carte-de-visite from the Harriet Hayden albums of an unknown Black child in nineteenth-century fashion. Courtesy of The Boston Athenaeum.
ABOUT US
In 1885, Dr. Arthur Nichols and his wife Elizabeth purchased a Beacon Hill townhouse where their three daughters matured into designers, writers, and social activists. In 1930, Rose Standish Nichols inherited the property. She laid the plans for its establishment as a museum and soon after her death in 1960, the Nichols House Museum opened to the public. Today, the Nichols House Museum welcomes visitors for tours, lectures, programs, and special events.
