Thursday, Oct. 23rd, 2003

Nancy S. Seasholes

Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston

Fully one-sixth of Boston is built on made land. Although other waterfront cities also have substantial areas that are built on fill, Boston probably has more than any city in North America. In Gaining Ground historian Nancy Seasholes has given us the first complete account of when, why, and how this land was created.

The story of landmaking in Boston is presented geographically; each chapter traces landmaking in a different part of the city from its first permanent settlement to the present. Seasholes introduces findings from recent archaeological investigations in Boston, and relates landmaking to the major historical developments that shaped it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, landmaking in Boston was spurred by the rapid growth that resulted from the burgeoning China trade. The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century prompted several large projects to create residential land--not for the Irish, but to keep the taxpaying Yankees from fleeing to the suburbs. Many landmaking projects were undertaken to cover tidal flats that had been polluted by raw sewage discharged directly onto them, removing the "pestilential exhalations" thought to cause illness. Land was also added for port developments, public parks, and transportation facilities, including the largest landmaking project of all, the airport.

A separate chapter discusses the technology of landmaking in Boston, explaining the basic method used to make land and the changes in its various components over time. The book is copiously illustrated with maps that show the original shoreline in relation to today’s streets, details from historical maps that trace the progress of landmaking, and historical drawings and photographs.

Back to Top

Ann and Liv Cross Antarctica

Written especially for younger readers, this book recounts the story of how the first women crossed the Antarctic continent on foot.

Sept. 23rd, 2003

Ann Bancroft & Liv Arnesen

No Horizon is So Far: Two Women and Their Extraordinary Journey Across Antarctica

In February 2001, former schoolteachers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen became the first women to cross the Antarctic continent on foot. Against all odds, they walked, skied, or ice-sailed for nearly three months in temperatures as cold as -35°F, towing their 250-pound supply sledges across 1700 miles of terrain riddled with rotten ice and deadly, hidden crevasses. Though modern technology could not ensure rescue should they need it, website transmissions and satellite phone calls enabled more than 3 million children from 65 countries to bear witness to the journey. In accomplishing the seemingly impossible, Ann and Liv inspired classrooms and re-ignited the aspirations of more than twenty-thousand adults who wrote to thank and encourage them.

Chronicling the dramatic details of this historic expedition, No Horizon Is So Far explores what drove Ann and Liv across the ice and ultimately into hearts and history books around the world. About journeys both literal and figurative, each marked with suspense, danger, and incredible endurance No Horizon Is So Far celebrates two modern-day heroines and that which is heroic in all of us.

For those young fans and for the millions of children yet to be touched by this amazing story, Ann and Liv Cross Antarctica chronicles the historic journey in words and beautiful oil illustrations.

Back to Top

Back to Top

May 6th, 2003

Subhankar Banerjee
A Slide Lecture

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land

Award-winning photographer Subhankar Banerjee fell in love with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, devoting two years of his life to documenting the land, its wild species, and its native peoples. With Inupiat guide Robert Thompson, Banerjee traveled 4000 miles on foot, raft, kayak, and snowmobile over four seasons to prove that the Refuge is alive year around—and that leaving it intact in all its mysterious beauty is vital to the survival of this unique ecosystem.

In Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, Banerjee tells a story in 120 breath-taking color images. His photos are paired with essays by Peter Matthiessen, David Allen Sibley, and George Schaller, among others, with a foreword by former president Jimmy Carter.

Back to Top

May 1st, 2003

Mabel Cabot

Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China & Mongolia 1921-1925

Mabel Cabot, author of "Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China & Mongolia 1921-1925", will give a slide presentation about her mother's nine-month expedition to China. Janet Elliott Wulsin and her anthropologist husband Frederick Wulsin led a National Geographic Society expedition to document the vanishing cultures and tribes of Tibet and Inner Mongolia, and collect and study the flora and fauna of the region. Their caravan travelled across the southern regions of the Gobi desert on camelback, up rocky gorges by mule train, and down the Yellow River on a yak-skin raft.

The Wulsin's photographs and lantern slides capture medieval walled cities, Mongol caravans, remote villages in Kansu, elaborate Buddhist rituals, and the interiors of three of the great Tibetan monasteries—Kumbum, Labrang and Choni. Cabot's research of Janet Wulsin's letters and diaries, in conjunction with the expedition photographs and documents, offers readers an extraordinary account of adventure and discovery.

April 15, 2003

Hiker Safety with Alex Kosseff

AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership

In AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership, author Alex Kosseff fuses his own extensive leadership experience with that of acclaimed experts as he details the critical skills and concepts every outdoor leader needs to know. Building on the basic foundations of leadership, Kosseff explores such critical topics as effective decision making, group dynamics, risk management, awareness and attitude, human impact on the environment, and more. Anecdotes from experts in the field demonstrate real-life applications of the key concepts covered. In addition, Kosseff addresses hot topics such as current “industry” standards for safety and quality, the use of technology in the wild, and legal issues for outdoor leaders.

March 18, 2003

On the Road with Let's Go Spain & Portugal

Let's Go Spain and Portugal 2003

Let’s Go Spain & Portugal 2003 writers Sebastian Brown, Nate Gray, Joshua Ludmir, and Karen McCarthy will offer first-hand advice about budget travel in Iberia and talk about their adventures while touring last summer. Stephanie Levner will speak about her recent, fall semester in Madrid.

Native Chilean Sebastian Brown explored Spain’s western regions of Extremadura, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia. Nate Gray’s travel route included the Pyrenees, Navarra, and Andorra; an Associated Press photo captured his being thrown by a bull in Pamplona! Joshua Ludmir’s eastern coast travels included Valencia, Murcia, and the Balearic Islands. Spanish teacher Karen McCarthy headed south to the Andalucia and the Algarve.


SEBASTIAN BROWN is a native Chilean and an experienced outdoorsman. Currently in his sophomore year at Harvard.

NATE GRAY has previously traveled through several parts of Spain and has traveled in Tanzania, Colombia, the Cayman Islands, and Belize. He is a senior at Harvard.

JOSHUA LUDMIR is a sophomore at Harvard who has been to Spain a number of times.

STEFANIE LEVNER has recently returned from studying in Madrid. She has previously researched in Peru and Indonesia for Let's Go.

KAREN MCCARTHY receved a masters from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2002. She is currently a Spanish teacher. She has traveled extensively in Central America and East Africa.

Back to Top

Back to Top

February 27, 2003

Karl Haglund and Renata von Tscharner

Inventing the Charles River

Author Karl Haglund, a senior planner for the Metropolitan District Commission, will reprise the various epochs of invention that accompanied the transformation of the lower Charles River from a pastoral, tidal estuary to a great urban lake and surrounding parkland. From the Colonial era to the Big Dig, Haglund will show how a host of interests intersected and then resolved their conflicts to create one of the world's great urban parklands and associated metropolitan system. Renata von Tscharner, president of the Charles River Conservancy, an organization dedicated to renewing the Charles River Parklands, will join Haglund in the discussion. A slide show will accompany the lecture.

January 31,2003

Andro Linklater

Measuring America

Linklater's fascinating, provocative and eye-opening story of why America has ended up with its unique system of weights and measures, is explained in this volume that also shows how it has shaped the culture and country.

January 21, 2003

Ross King

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

The extraordinary stoy behind Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel from the author of the acclaimed "Brunelleschi's Dome." King paints a magnificent picture of day-to-day life on the Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early 16th century Rome.King will illustrate this lecture with slides.