LENOX, Mass.— Prof. Gary H. Darden returns to Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum to give a visual presentation on "The Making of a Cosmopolitan Capital:  Washington, D.C. from Frontier Town to Global Metropolis." 

 

His lecture is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9 at 3:30 pm.

 

With the establishment of Washington, D.C. in 1790 as the site of a brand-new capital city, the once dirt-road frontier city of the fragile American Republic emerged from the ashes of the War of 1812 to become a political center for a burgeoning continental empire and eventually a global colossus by the Cold War era. According to Dardin, the scale and scope of its civic architecture and cultural assets soon matched its economic and political weight on par with its European counterparts.  

 

In 2016, Darden lectured at Ventfort Hall on the decline of the British aristocracy leading up to World War I and a year later presented a talk on the architectural rivalries within the Vanderbilt family. Thereafter he covered the White House from presidential palace to the people's palace. 

 

Darden chairs the Department of Social Sciences & History at Fairleigh Dickinson, Becton College of Arts & Sciences, Madison, NJ.  He was awarded Teacher of the Year at the college.

 

His scholarly work includes articles for journals, encyclopedias and the historical text for the book, The American Soldier: From the Civil War to the War in Iraq, A Photographic Tribute, which accompanied a major exhibit touring the US.  Darden was also a moderator with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.

 

Tickets for the Darden talk are $20 per person. Reservations for attending the talk are required by calling 413-637-3206. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event.  The historical mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.