It wouldn’t be Christmas for many without the images of the steaming holly-bedecked Christmas pudding and roast goose with sage and onion stuffing made famous in Charles Dickens’s immortal holiday tale. In fact, it was A Christmas Carol that arguably established a number of Christmas traditions we celebrate to this day, including caroling and turkey in addition to goose for the holiday dinner. But, food in the world of Dickens wasn’t always so merry, as many will remember in thinking of poor Oliver Twist and his bowl of gruel. In between, there were meals of marrow pudding, steak and kidney pie, cod with oyster sauce and a grand variety of cakes and pastries of which even Queen Victoria would approve. In this illustrated talk, writer and food historian, Carl Raymond will take us on a tour through highlights of Dickens’ stories, focusing on how he portrayed food and what is said about his most famous characters.  Also, Carl will provide a general overview of Victorian food and dining, as well as some insights on how Dickens himself felt about what was on the table.

Carl Raymond is a food historian, writer and museum educator. He has worked at the Merchant’s House Museum as well as King Manor Museum in education and programming. Carl trained at French Culinary Institute as well as the Institute for Culinary Education and holds a diploma in Culinary Arts.

He has taught recreational cooking classes throughout New York City and has lectured on food history for the Merchant’s House Museum, the National Arts Club, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, St. George’s Society, Historic Royal Palaces and the English Speaking Union. He was a contributing writer on SAVORING GOTHAM: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City (Oxford University Press) and is at work on his own book, a culinary history of the Gilded Age.

A part of Royal Oak Foundation’s new digital lecture series.

St. George’s Society members receive $5 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Top Image: A Christmas pudding. ©National Trust Images William Shaw

During the first half of the 20th century, European shipbuilders competed to create showpiece “ships of state,” intended to appeal to well-heeled American travelers seeking adventure and sophistication. Interiors were outfitted by well-known designers—such as Charles-Frédéric Mewes and his partner Arthur Davis, famed for their work on the Hôtel Ritz in Paris and in London. Transatlantic passenger lines attracted customers through the allure of these extravagant spaces, which included opulent first-class offerings such as a smoking room, writing room, lounge, grand staircase, colossal ballrooms, modern pools and gymnasiums, and a veranda café or other verdant theatrical setting evoking the greenery of a winter garden.

Design historian Leslie Klingner will give us a glimpse into traveling at the height of luxury during this golden age of ocean liners. Drawing from rarely-seen imagery including Titanic’s tiled Turkish Baths, the Art Deco extravagance of the SS Normandie, and Cunard’s RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Mary, Leslie will share visuals of a nearly-lost world of furnishings and interiors that rivaled the world’s finest hotels and restaurants. She will share first-hand accounts of the fashionable passengers aboard those transatlantic “Floating Palaces,” who changed their dress several times a day, and sported specialized accessories for the voyage. She will also trace the transition of decorative styles across the Atlantic, explaining the influence of these great ships on fashion, jewelry, interior design and architecture, both on land and at sea.

Leslie Klingner is a design historian specializing in decorative art and material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2006, Leslie became the Curator of Interpretation for Biltmore, the family home of the late George W. Vanderbilt. In this role, she shares in the curation and preservation of America’s largest home and creates historical tours, products, programming and exhibitions across the estate. Prior to her work with the Vanderbilt collection, Leslie served as a Lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum (2001-2009) and as Senior Educator and Academic Programs Coordinator for the Brooklyn Museum.

Her recent co-curated exhibitions include A Vanderbilt House Party: The Gilded Age; Glamour on Board: Fashion from Titanic the Movie; Fashionable Romance: Wedding Gowns in Film; Dressing Downton: Changing Fashions for Changing Times; The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad; and Downton Abbey: The Exhibition.

A part of Royal Oak Foundation’s new digital lecture series.

St. George’s Society members receive $5 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Top Image: SS Normandie interior, 1935

During America’s Gilded Age, everything was opulent and heavily decorated, and above all, meant to impress. From the early 1870s to the beginning of World War I, rich and ambitious families looked to England and France to define their sense of culture and taste. Sumptuous design also influenced the dinner tables of the newly wealthy. While contemporary novelist Edith Wharton was not a food writer, she describes food and table settings, along with fashion and architecture, to highlight significant traits about her fictional characters.

In this illustrated talk, food historian Carl Raymond will delve into the rich culinary history of Gilded Age New York using examples from Wharton’s life and writings, as well as from historical descriptions and menus. From grand dining in hotels such as, the Astor House and the Fifth Avenue Hotel, to the legendary restaurants Delmonico’s and Sherry’s, his lecture will cover the chefs and stories, the dishes and the drama.

He will provide a glimpse of Mrs. Astor’s famous ballroom—with opera suppers for the famous 400—and explore, using rarely seen archival material, what was served at Stanford White and J.P. Morgan’s grand salons. He will capture the Gilded Age’s obsession with the most extravagant food money could buy. From the meals served at lavish tables, to those given to the servants who performed pivotal roles at the grandest social events, Carl will describe the essence and elegance of a vanished era.

Carl Raymond is a food historian, writer and museum educator. He has worked at the Merchant’s House Museum as well as King Manor Museum in education and programming. Carl trained at French Culinary Institute as well as the Institute for Culinary Education and holds a diploma in Culinary Arts.

He has taught recreational cooking classes throughout New York City and has lectured on food history for the Merchant’s House Museum, the National Arts Club, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, St. George’s Society, Historic Royal Palaces and the English Speaking Union. He was a contributing writer on SAVORING GOTHAM: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City (Oxford University Press) and is at work on his own book, a culinary history of the Gilded Age.

A part of Royal Oak Foundation’s new digital lecture series.

St. George’s Society members receive $5 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Top Image: Albert Sterner, Supper at Delmonico's, New York 1898

In July 1553, Tudor England was plunged into political and military crisis. Henry VIII’s 15-year-old son, Edward VI, died leaving no male heir. For the first time, a woman would wear the English crown, but who would it be: Edward’s Catholic half-sister Mary, or his Protestant cousin Jane Grey? On his deathbed, Edward cut Mary out of succession and named 16-year-old Jane as his heir. As fierce a Protestant as Edward himself, and already married to the son of the power-hungry Duke of Northumberland, Jane was proclaimed queen and taken to London to await her coronation. But Mary would not accept her disinheritance—and neither would the country. Just nine days later, Jane’s brief reign was over, and seven months later she lost her head on the block. Author and historian Helen Castor will explore this dramatic story and assess Jane’s role in the coup that would ultimately cost her life. The tragic tale of the Nine Days’ Queen is not only a breathless political thriller, but a defining moment in the history of England’s religion, its constitution, and its crown.

Dr. Helen Castor is a medieval and Tudor historian and a BBC broadcaster. She directed studies in History at Sidney Sussex College in the University of Cambridge (where she remains a Bye-Fellow) for eight years before deciding to concentrate on writing for a wider audience. She is the author of Blood & Roses (2006), She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (2011), and Joan of Arc: A History (2015), which was longlisted for the 2016 PEN America/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. She has presented a range of history programs for BBC radio and television, including documentaries based on her books and a well-received series last year on England’s Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey. Her most recent book is Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity (Penguin Monarchs Series, 2018), and her next will be The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, to be published in 2021.

A part of Royal Oak Foundation’s new digital lecture series.

St. George’s Society members receive $5 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Top Image: Paul Delaroche, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 1834. The National Gallery, London

The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim at the turn of the 20th century was Lucy Christina Sutherland, a London-born dressmaker who was also the first to coin the dress term “chic.” She founded Lucile Ltd., a brand which revolutionized the Edwardian fashion world by introducing live models on the catwalk, less restrictive designs, daring split skirts and risqué low necklines. While considered risqué, her designs were known for their use of draped fabrics for both women’s evening-wear and lingerie. Her clients ranged from royalty, aristocrats, and socialites to the queens of stage and screen: Sarah Bernhardt, Lily Langtry, and Ellen Terry. Lady Duff Gordon was among the first-class passengers on the ship Titanic on April 14, 1912, and controversially escaped with her husband in Lifeboat No. 1—a harrowing experience that was widely reported in the press. Design historian Leslie Klingner will delve into the history of this fascinating designer who transformed the fashion world with stores in Paris, London, NYC, and Chicago, her modern marketing strategies, and her stunning costumes.

Leslie Klingner is a design historian specializing in decorative art and material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. Leslie has served as a Lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum (2001-2009) and as Senior Educator and Academic Programs Coordinator for the Brooklyn Museum. In 2006, Leslie became the Curator of Interpretation for Biltmore, the family home of the late George W. Vanderbilt. Combining her love of history, fashion and film, she co-curated the first large-scale exhibition of costume from the film Titanic entitled Glamour on Board. Other recent co-curated exhibitions include A Vanderbilt House Party: The Gilded Age; Dressing Downton: Changing Fashions for Changing Times; and The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad. Leslie is a popular Royal Oak speaker who developed this lecture especially for Royal Oak.

A part of Royal Oak Foundation’s new digital lecture series.

St. George’s Society members receive $5 OFF the standard ticket price! Use code SGSNY20.

The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim at the turn of the 20th century was Lucy Christina Sutherland, a London-born dressmaker who was also the first to coin the dress term “chic.” She founded Lucile Ltd., a brand which revolutionized the Edwardian fashion world by introducing live models on the catwalk, less restrictive designs, daring split skirts and risqué low necklines. While considered risqué, her designs were known for their use of draped fabrics for both women’s evening-wear and lingerie. Her clients ranged from royalty, aristocrats, and socialites to the queens of stage and screen: Sarah Bernhardt, Lily Langtry, and Ellen Terry. Lady Duff Gordon was among the first-class passengers on the ship Titanic on April 14, 1912, and controversially escaped with her husband in Lifeboat No. 1—a harrowing experience that was widely reported in the press. Design historian Leslie Klingner will delve into the history of this fascinating designer who transformed the fashion world with stores in Paris, London, NYC, and Chicago, her modern marketing strategies, and her stunning costumes.

Leslie Klingner is a design historian specializing in decorative art and material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. Leslie has served as a Lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum (2001-2009) and as Senior Educator and Academic Programs Coordinator for the Brooklyn Museum. In 2006, Leslie became the Curator of Interpretation for Biltmore, the family home of the late George W. Vanderbilt. Combining her love of history, fashion and film, she co-curated the first large-scale exhibition of costume from the film Titanic entitled Glamour on Board. Other recent co-curated exhibitions include A Vanderbilt House Party: The Gilded Age; Dressing Downton: Changing Fashions for Changing Times; and The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad. Leslie is a popular Royal Oak speaker who developed this lecture especially for Royal Oak.

A part of Royal Oak Foundation’s new digital lecture series.

St. George’s Society members receive $5 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Powerful women have been regarded with fear and perceived as skillful manipulators ever since Pandora opened her box, Eve persuaded Adam to sample some fruit, and Cleopatra rolled out of a carpet at the feet of Caesar. English playwright and poet John Dryden may have hoped in 1661 for a world in which “every father govern’d as a King,” but reality for 17th century Restoration England women of the royal household was not easy. The court was hedonistic and dangerous. Cleavage and a quick wit were weapons to be employed for advancement and royal mistresses were often capable strategists, who invisibly influenced society. They were portrayed in portraits as either virtuous or lascivious—extreme ends of the moral spectrum. One of the most strategically astute mistresses and the favorite of Charles II was Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who was infamous for performing a sex act on a 14th-century mummified corpse of a bishop. Despite being deemed a “harlot”, she is rarely depicted in portraits as a seductress, but rather as a humble shepherdess or a religious figure. Frances Teresa Stuart, later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, who seemed to have achieved the impossible in resisting the sexual advances of the King, is depicted as Diana the virgin huntress. The court of Charles II was extravagant, sensuous and treacherous, but it was also a place where ambitious female poets, artists, preachers (who sometimes preached naked) and actors, among others could excel. Art consultant and popular Royal Oak speaker Angus Haldane will illustrate the lives of notorious mistresses, faithful wives, and creative figures who set the court aflame with their intrigue, brazen manipulation and talent. Mr. Haldane will discuss the stories, vanities, gossip and political maneuvers behind their portraits and examine how the depictions of them as seductresses and sirens should be viewed through the filter of their roles and achievements.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2019 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 21 August.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

For more information, please call Kayla Smith at 212-480-2889, ext. 201.

Horses are an integral part of English social, political, economic and cultural history. From the Middle Ages through to the aftermath of the WWI, they were used for agricultural development, the military, transportation, industry, and, of course, sport. Horses were crucial to sustaining life in the English country house. Horsepower brought stone to build the house, pulled the wagons filled with art expressing the owner’s taste and sophistication, pulled the ploughs that farmed the estate, and most importantly carried house guests who marveled at these symbols of power and influence. Until the early years of the 20th century, without horses the country house would have ceased to function. As a result, stables were often as elegant as the main dwelling—such as the Robert Adam designed stable at Kedleston. Artworks displayed in country houses also revealed a fascination with horses, and especially for horse racing. Horse racing has always been one of Britain’s most popular sports. Horse racing attracted the full spectrum of British class and society who went to the races to gamble and socialize, to plot and scheme, and to flirt and fight. In his richly-illustrated lecture, Oxford historian Dr. Oliver Cox, will talk about the long history of horses and the English country house, while leading us on a tour of some of Britain’s grandest country houses, with stops at the iconic sporting spectacles of The Derby, Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival. Looking beyond the top hats and fascinators, Oliver will explore the roots of the British love for horses and horse racing while showing great houses, from Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland to Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire.

Dr. Oliver Cox is Heritage Engagement Fellow at the University of Oxford, where he is responsible for developing strategic partnerships with the UK and international heritage sector. Oliver is co-lead of the Oxford University Heritage Network, and part of the team delivering the university’s strategic partnership with the National Trust. Oliver also advises privately-owned country houses on how to develop research partnerships and has recently acted as a historical advisor to Chatsworth House Trust. Oliver is a historian by training and received his undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford. Oliver’s recent publications include contributions to The Country House Past, Present and Future: Great Houses of the British Isles (supported by The Royal Oak Foundation), The Country House: Sport & Leisure (2019) and academic journal articles exploring the politics of horse racing in eighteenth-century Britain.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Fall 2019 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 21 August.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

For more information, please call Kayla Smith at 212-480-2889, ext. 201.

Despite the castles, crown jewels, and other trappings of monarchy, English royals have many of the same issues as average people. They eat, entertain their friends and worry about money. Henry VIII tripped over his dogs. George II threw his son out of the house. James I had to cut back on his alcohol bills. The great difference, however, was that royal families had much more domestic help—people who ran the machine that is the Royal Household. Everyone, from James I’s Master of the Horse down to William IV’s Assistant Table Decker, was there to smooth the sovereign’s path through life. Even today, Elizabeth II has a staff of 1,200. In his lecture, historian Adrian Tinniswood will uncover the reality of five centuries of life at the English court, taking us on a remarkable journey from one Queen Elizabeth to another. He will reconstruct life behind the throne—telling secret domestic details—and will illustrate the daily lives of both clerks and courtiers, crowned heads and court jesters. Adrian will describe the power struggles and petty rivalries that have historically dominated court politics. He will also talk about the shifting idea of the monarchy today, and how their support network still serves as an interface between sovereign and the public. His witty social history of royal life will offer a tour of England's grandest households while commenting on the ever present tension between the throne room and downstairs.

Adrian Tinniswood OBE studied English and Philosophy at Southampton University and was awarded an MPhil at Leicester University. He has acted as a consultant to the National Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund. He is a Senior Research Fellow in History at the Universuty of Buckingham. He has lectured at several universities in both the United Kingdom and United States, including the University of Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of 15 books on architectural and social history including By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London, The Verneys, Pirates of Barbary, and The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars. His latest book on which his lecture is based is Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the Royal Household (2018). Tinniswood was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to heritage.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2019 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 13 February.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

For more information, please call Kayla Smith at 212-480-2889, ext. 201.

In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent command: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." This spy was Virginia Hall, a young socialite from Baltimore, who, after being rejected from the Foreign Service because of her gender and prosthetic leg, talked her way into the SOE, the WWII British spy organization dubbed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare." Hall, known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," was one of the greatest spies in American and English history, yet her full story remains untold. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Hall coordinated a network of spies to report on German troop movements, arranged equipment parachute drops for Resistance fighters, and recruited and trained guerrilla units to ambush enemy convoys and blow up bridges and railroads. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Hall refused orders to evacuate. She finally escaped in a death-defying climb over of the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had more lives to save, she plunged back into the field with the American OSS secret service, directing partisan armies to back up the Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Sonia Purnell will reveal the captivating story of a formidable, yet shockingly overlooked, heroine whose fierce persistence helped win the war.

Sonia Purnell is an acclaimed biographer and journalist who has worked for The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian. Her book Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill (published as First Lady in the UK) was chosen as a book of the year by The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, and was a finalist for the Plutarch Award. Her first book, Just Boris, was long-listed for the Orwell prize. Her latest book, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II will be published in April 2019. The book is currently in development at Paramount Pictures and slated to star English actress Daisy Ridley known for her recent role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2019 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 13 February.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

For more information, please call Kayla Smith at 212-480-2889, ext. 201.

Nicholas M. Dawes will join us for a talk about Staffordshire Potteries in the second half of the 18th century, including the artistic, technological, cultural and commercial influences in the work of England’s best known potter, Josiah Wedgwood I. The illustrated talk will include references to Wedgwood’s contemporaries, parallel trends in decorative arts and a view of Neo-Classical revivalism in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

 Attendees also are encouraged to bring objects for Mr. Dawes to examine and identify.

Nicholas Dawes is Senior Vice President of Special Collections at Heritage Auctions in New York and former Vice President and auctioneer at Sotheby’s and Phillips, where he ran the European Ceramics department in the early 1980’s. Nicholas grew up near the Staffordshire Potteries in an antiques dealing family and has deep connections to the world of ceramics. He is the author of four standard works on decorative arts and known to many for his frequent appearances as an expert appraiser on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow since its debut in 1996.

Presented by
The Colonial Dames of America
The American Friends of the Georgian Group
St. George’s Society of New York

$45 for members of sponsoring societies
$25 for junior  members of sponsoring societies
$55 for non-members/guests

To RSVP/purchase tickets email admin@cda1890.org or call 212.838.6470

The Elizabethan era (1558-1603) is often depicted as the “Golden Age” in England’s history— an era of great exploration and military victories in which Queen Elizabeth I is represented in sumptuous clothing and jewels. But the reality, which included religious conflicts that tore families apart, political challenges to Elizabeth’s authority, high levels of poverty and crime, and vulnerability to foreign invasion, was far grimmer. The Queen was considered a Protestant heretic by the rulers of Europe and numerous plots were hatched to dethrone her and replace her with Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. Elizabeth’s closest courtiers tried to protect her. William Cecil (later Lord Burghley) was the first to oversee the gathering of intelligence and was aided by Francis Walsingham, another of Elizabeth's most loyal ministers known as the "Spymaster.” Walsingham's network of clandestine agents moved throughout England and Europe using their contacts and skills in navigating court politics to safeguard their Queen. They unearthed a series of threats, including one led by an invasion of priests who had been trained abroad and were sent to prepare England for a Catholic rebellion. The priests scattered throughout the country and were hidden in “priest-holes” by Catholic families in places such as Baddesley Clinton and Coughton Court in Warwickshire. Other houses involved in this period of intrigue include Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, and Scotney Castle in Kent—all National Trust houses.

Carol Ann Lloyd will describe this tumultuous time with its secret plots, intercepted and decoded messages, and assassination attempts. She will explore dark corners of Elizabethan English history and reveal how the ability to control information became the most potent tool of the realm.

Carol Ann Lloyd is a popular speaker who shares the stories of Shakespeare and English history. She is the former Manager of Visitor Education at Folger Shakespeare Library, where she gave workshops and tours about Shakespeare and Early Modern England. Carol Ann has presented programs at the Smithsonian, Folger Shakespeare Library, Agecroft Hall, and TEDx, among other venues. Ms. Lloyd is a member of the National Speakers Association.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2019 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 13 February.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

For more information, please call Kayla Smith at 212-480-2889, ext. 201.

The historical value and interest of diaries is not so much in their accounts of great historical events but in their ability to convey the quality – the sights, smells and textures – of everyday life that would otherwise be lost to us.

It is everyday life that abounds in the diaries of Richard Hall, a sometimes pious Baptist silk hosier who kept shop at one end or other of the old London Bridge through much of the late eighteenth century. He recorded what he ate, what he purchased, how he slept and above all what the weather was like in near-obsessive detail. He charts the hurly-burly of family life – he had two marriages and numerous children – his sometimes tumultuous relationship with his church, and his boundless curiousity about almost everything – from astronomy to the latest fashions.

Richard lived between 1729 and 1801 and I am fortunate enough to have his diaries, his account books, his jottings and other bits and pieces.

Author Mike Rendell has enjoyed sifting through the rich treasure trove of his papers to present a portrait of a flawed but thoroughly likeable ‘Georgian gentleman’.

Mike Rendell was born in Bristol and read Law at Southampton University. After graduation he joined a Bristol law firm where he was a partner for thirty years.

He specialized in conveyancing and wrote a weekly legal advice column in the local press, as well as contributing to various journals and publications on legal issues connected with property ownership. He retired in 2003 and he and his wife Philippa now live a nomadic existence which takes them from the edge of Dartmoor in England to the Jalon Valley in Spain.

He is currently working on a novel, to be entitled One London Bridge, about a family living in London in the Georgian era. Mike regards himself as the custodian of a vast array of family papers which have somehow survived through the centuries, and it is his ambition to bring as much of it as possible into the public arena.

He also speaks regularly on 18th century-related topics, both in Spain and in England, to History Societies, Genealogical Groups, Colleges, Women’s Institutes and Probus Groups. He is always looking for new areas where he can share with others his love of all things Georgian.

Presented by
The Colonial Dames of America
The American Friends of the Georgian Group
Royal Oak Foundation
St. George’s Society of New York

$45 for members of sponsoring societies
$25 for junior  members of sponsoring societies
$55 for non-members/guests

To RSVP/purchase tickets email admin@cda1890.org or call 212.838.6470

When Paddy Leigh Fermor wrote this in a letter to The Duchess of Devonshire (“Debo”), Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland, had been in the Cavendish family for centuries, since it was built by King John in 1185 and purchased from Sir Walter Raleigh in 1602. Since that time Lismore has been besieged, lain derelict, rebuilt and redecorated. The 6th Duke of Devonshire was responsible for the castle’s renovations from 1812-1822 that resulted in its present Gothic Revival appearance. During the mid-19th century John Gregory Crace, the leading maker of Gothic Revival furniture, and his partner designer A.W.N. Pugin were commissioned to transform the ruined chapel into a medieval-style banqueting hall. The castle also contains some of the finest examples of domestic Pugin furniture still in private hands. The most recent renovations done by William Cavendish, Earl of Burlington, and his wife Laura bring the castle into the 21st century. In 2005 Lord Burlington converted the derelict West Wing into a state-of-the-art contemporary gallery and arts center.

Lord Burlington will give Royal Oak members an illustrated personal tour of Lismore castle, where Adele Astaire, wife of the younger son of the 9th Duke of Devonshire—and sister and former dancing partner of Fred Astaire—lived until her husband’s death in 1941. Lord Burlington will guide us through the Castle’s fluctuating 800-year history; show the remarkable Pugin interiors; trace the Cavendish family’s American connections; and explain how the castle has evolved into a much-loved family home, as well as a center for international contemporary art and education.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Fall 2018 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 4 September.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

History was made in the Cabinet War Rooms—an underground bunker hidden beneath the streets of Westminster—a nerve center where Winston Churchill and his inner circle directed the Second World War. Preserved and opened by the Imperial War Museum in 1984, the War Rooms are a popular London destination. Phil Reed, Director from 1993 to 2016, expanded the Cabinet War Rooms and developed the Churchill Museum, opened by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005. Phil’s lecture will describe the evolution of the Cabinet War Rooms, alongside the evolution of Winston Churchill from schoolboy, to statesman, and finally, to the global icon he is today. Indeed, the Oscar-winning film Darkest Hour, for which Phil served as the historical consultant, put Winston Churchill firmly back on center stage 50 years after his death and lionized him for later generations. Phil will talk about how the film portrayed Churchill as a man, rather than the demi-god he is so often portrayed as today. He will track Churchill’s development, his public persona, and his self-perception while sharing unique insights into the making of the most successful cinematic portrayal of Churchill to date. He will guide us through the labyrinth of rooms and corridors that sheltered the Prime Minister and his cabinet from the German bombing raids, and explore the highlights of the Churchill Museum to convey the story of Churchill’s life and legacy.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Fall 2018 Lecture Series.

Registration open 4 September.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Journey through British food and dining traditions from the mid-19th century through the early part of the 20th century. Beginning with a look at food references in the work of Charles Dickens which helped establish some of Britain's most cherished culinary traditions, the talk will continue all the way thorough to the world of great town and country houses known to lovers of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, this talk will take a look at dining tables both upstairs and downstairs as well as inside and outside the house, including some National Trust properties such as Petworth House and Standen House. Carl Raymond will lead the audience on an illustrated tour of some of the classic dishes of the Victorian and Edwardian periods and discuss their background, how they were prepared and how they were served. In addition, he will discuss cultural and social trends and influences that affected eating and entertaining from the Industrial Revolution to the beginning of World War I.

Carl Raymond is a food historian, writer and museum educator. He has worked at the Merchant's House Museum as well as King Manor Museum in education and programming. Carl trained at French Culinary Institute as well as the Institute for Culinary Education and holds a diploma in Culinary Arts. He has taught recreational cooking classes throughout New York City and has lectured on food history for the Merchant's House Museum, the National Arts Club, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, St. George's Society, Historic Royal Palaces and the English Speaking Union. He was a contributing writer on SAVORING GOTHAM: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City (Oxford University Press) and is at work on his own book, a culinary history of the Gilded Age.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Fall 2018 Lecture Series.

Registration opens 4 September.
St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Main Image: Dining Room at Standen House and Garden, West Sussex ©National Trust Images/Chris Lacey
Images (L to R): The Kitchen at Petworth House and Park, West Sussex; Victorian ice cream making utensils in the Larder at Petworth House, West Sussex; The kitchen at Lanhydrock, Cornwall - Copper containers sit on the range ©National Trust Images, Andreas von Einsiedel 

While looking through silks in the Textile Study Room of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, historian Dr. Zara Anishanslin was struck by similarities between mid-18th century English silks and a dress featured in a portrait by Robert Feke hanging at the Winterthur Museum. From her discovery, she began to research and explore the cultural history of the 18th century British Atlantic world, where dresses like the one pictured often declared the social, economic and political capital of the wearer. Her resulting story revolves around the mid-18th-century silk dress from the portrait and involves the famed English designer of its pattern, Anna Maria Garthwaite; the Spitalfields weaver of the fabric, Simon Julins; the wealthy American owner of the dress, Anne Shippen Willing; and the portrait artist, Robert Feke. Tracing the full biographies of this network of four people, Dr. Anishanslin ultimately uncovered a whole world of hidden histories of thousands of people, things, ideas, and events connected to this portrait of a woman from one of most powerful families in the Colonies.

Dr. Anishanslin will show how this dress demonstrates the popularity of botanical designs in fashion, and discuss how the production and selling of such goods in the 18th-century British Atlantic marketplace created a consumer community that tied all of its inhabitants together.

Dr. Zara Anishanslin is a historian and professor specializing in Early American and Atlantic World History, with a focus on 18th-century material culture. Dr. Zara Anishanslin has taught at CUNY and Columbia University, and since 2016, she has been Assistant Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware. She was a Royal Oak Foundation Scholar at The Attingham Trust’s 2017 Attingham Summer School. Her recent book, Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World, published in 2016 by Yale University Press was a finalist for 2017 Best First Book Prize, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2018 Lecture Series.

St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Main Image: Anna Maria Garthwaite, silk design, 1743. Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (1845–1927), was one of the last hereditary aristocrats to wield power by virtue of his birth—and he used it to establish himself as a force to be reckoned with in British politics for half a century.

Simon Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry, will discuss his ancestor and trace the long arc of Lansdowne’s career, which included service as Governor-General of Canada, Viceroy of India, Secretary of State for War, Foreign Secretary, and Leader of the House of Lords. He will present the man and politician in the context of his era, offering insight into his own life and achievements and also fascinating details about his interactions with the leading personalities and contemporary events of his day. He will show how Lord Lansdowne was a moderate progressive, honest and courteous to the last, trusted by everyone, and struggling—as did so many of his class and generation—with the decline of British power that followed the end of World War I.

His story, based on private family archives, is that of a statesman who played a major role at a pivotal moment in the history of the United Kingdom.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2018 Lecture Series.

St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Main Image: Philip de László, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne in the robes of the Order of the Garter, 1920

The British country house in all its opulence and refinement seems worlds away from the fetid horrors of a slave ship. However the trade in enslaved Africans and slave-produced goods fueled the wealth that funded the creation of many 17th-to-19th-century British stately homes. Slavery-related houses appear throughout the British Isles and are concentrated in the major slaving ports of London, Bristol and Liverpool. About 10% of elite country houses has associations with slavery, but other houses had indirect ties and consumed slave-produced goods. Some of Britain’s aristocratic house owners’ money resulted from the slave trade itself—invested in the South Sea Company whose purpose was to sell slaves to the Spanish Colonies. Others married heiresses with ties to plantations such as Baron Thomas Onslow, who built a Palladian mansion at Clandon Park in Surrey (NT) ‘owing to his judicious marriage to the heiress of a West Indian fortune.’ Even materials used in these treasure houses resulted from slave activities such as ‘Spanish mahogany’ staircases and mahogany furniture which actually derived from Caribbean slave plantations.

Profits from slave labor at sugar plantations—whose products appeared on the country house dining table—aided family fortunes and funded stately home remodeling such as at Penryhn Castle (NT) whose Pennant family owned five plantations in Jamaica. These renovations were also linked to the wealth generated in the slave colonies of Virginia and the Carolinas. British family portraits might feature black servants, often as turbaned young pages at the side of their master or mistress as at Belton House in Lincolnshire (NT). The kneeling black figures adorning Dyrham Park's (NT) interior are best understood against the longstanding family connections with slavery.

Historian and Professor Dr. Madge Dresser will show these houses and explore some of the stories behind their connections with slavery to reflect on what they mean for our understanding of these beautiful buildings.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Spring 2018 Lecture Series.

St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price! Contact us for discount code.

Main Image: The rotunda at Ickworth, Suffolk. Photo ©National Trust Images/Arnhel de Serra

Situated on the stunning north Norfolk coast, Holkham is one of the finest examples of a centuries-old family estate adapting to the modern age. Thomas Coke, the 8th Earl of Leicester, stewards the thriving 25,000 acre estate, which has belonged to the Coke family since 1609. Its magnificent Palladian style Hall was built by the 1st Earl between 1734 and 1764. The Earl commissioned William Kent to design a building to reflect his passion and appreciation for Italian art and architecture, and to house his collection acquired on his Grand Tour. 

The interior state rooms feature superb examples of sculpture, tapestries, and paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, Claude, and Gainsborough, among others. Besides 7,400 acres of farm land managed by the farming company, the estate has other businesses, including a boutique hotel, a holiday park, various renewable energy projects, a National Nature Reserve, and the care of over 300 estate houses, many of which are over 150 years old. Thomas Coke, who took over the running of the estate in 2006, will speak to Royal Oak audiences about the history of his family home and illustrate its exquisite interiors. He will also discuss the challenges of maintaining such a grand estate, which draws nearly a million visitors a year.

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Fall 2017 Lecture Series.

St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price!

Main Image: Holkham Hall, Norfolk. By kind permission of the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of the Holkham Estate

The popular image of Winston Churchill—grandson of a duke, born at Blenheim Palace, drinking champagne and smoking a cigar—conjures up an image of a man of wealth and substance. In truth, Britain’s most celebrated modern statesman lived for most of his life on a financial cliff edge. He had to take risks, speculate wildly on shares, and write constantly to fund his lifestyle. Indeed in 1898 Churchill wrote “The only thing that worries me in life is money.”

With unprecedented access to Churchill’s private records, historian and financier David Lough was able to create the first fully researched narrative of Churchill’s private finances and business affairs. Mr. Lough will lecture and disclose the scale of Churchill’s financial risk-taking, his ability to talk or write himself out of the tightest corners, and also expose the links between the private Churchill and the public figure.

Depicting Churchill’s financial endeavors across his lifetime, Mr. Lough will also illustrate the cultural shift in Britain as aristocratic inheritances often waned and a new class of business entrepreneurs emerged, forging fortunes in railways, mining, finance, and other industries.

Mr. Lough’s remarkable tale of Churchill’s success despite his monetary shortcomings only makes the story of one of the most successful political figures of the 20th century more fascinating

A part of the Royal Oak Foundation's Fall 2017 Lecture Series.

St. George’s Society members receive $10 OFF the standard ticket price!

Main Image: Winston and Clementine Churchill, 1914 Photo: ©Mary Evans Picture Library 2008