Videos and Recorded Programs

Joseph Masiero discusses how asteroid families in our Solar System are the last remnants of massive collisions that occurred as the Sun and planets were being formed.

Ronald White examines Lincoln's overlooked notes to himself, revealing new and surprising aspects of America's greatest president.

Carol Brash examines four different representations of the Garden of Solitary Delight (Dule yuan), built in the 11th century by scholar-official Sima Guang.

Marja K. Seidel, postdoctoral research associate with Carnegie Observatories, discusses her quest to understand dark matter and also shares her experiences bringing astronomy education to remote and under-served communities around the world.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J.

Steven Shapin, the Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, draws attention to the widely held view that artistic productions are "things made up" and scientific knowledge consists of "things found out." How stable and coherent are such presumptions?

Mark Valeri, the Reverend Priscilla Wood Neaves Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, describes how new ideas of moral virtue and political reasonableness shaped Protestant approaches to religious choice in colonial America.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, art historian and journalist, reveals the scholarship and science behind Project Blue Boy, The Huntington's two-year effort to conserve one of Western Art's greatest masterpieces in this annual Founder's Day lecture.

Yong Chen, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, discusses the historical forces that turned Chinese food, a cuisine once widely rejected by Americans, into one of the most popular ethnic foods in the U.S.

Through the pioneering work of collectors and nurserymen, many new Japanese species were introduced to the American gardening public in the late 19th century.

David Armitage, the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University, puts contemporary conflicts from Afghanistan to Syria into historical perspective and asks why it matters whether we call them "civil wars" instead of insurgencies, rebellions, or even revolutions.

Martha Howell, professor of history at Columbia University and the R. Stanton Avery Distinguished Fellow, discusses the meaning attached to goods—both humble and luxurious—during the Renaissance. The era is considered by many to be the first age of commercial globalism.