The Morven Museum & Garden’s 2023 Grand Homes and Gardens Speaker Series themed Trailblazes and Trendsetters continues on March 15.
The series explores the people and spaces, past and present, who cultivated new opportunities and inspired breakthrough trends for future generations of landscape architects, designers, entrepreneurs, and horticulturalists.
Discover Bartram’s Garden with Aseel Rasheed, who is the garden’s public programs director. The lecture, which begins at 6:30 p.m. March 15, is sponsored by Keller Williams Princeton Realty.
Bartram’s Garden has “blazed many trails” as America’s oldest surviving botanic. It was established by the father of American botany John Bartram.
The 14-acre garden in Philadelphia is home to a collection of plant species collected, grown, and studied by the Bartram family from 1728 to 1850. Today the site provides communal space and sustainable farming opportunities for its surrounding neighborhoods, according to Morven Museum.
The talk will explore the history of the Bartram family, the home, and the gardens while also taking the story up to the present day and the site’s groundbreaking role as a space serving the community.
The speaker series started with Russel Wright’s Manitoga on Feb. 22. The talk explored Manitoga: The Russel Wright House with Vivian Linares, Manitoga’s director of collections, interpretation, and preservation.
Manitoga, Russel and Mary Wright’s 1960s home in Garrison, N.Y., stands alone as an iconic and idiosyncratic example of eco-sensitive modernist architecture.
The home’s 75-acre woodland garden, a reclaimed quarry restored to its “natural setting,” is a key illustration of the ecological aesthetic in landscape architecture, according to Morven Museum.
The talk, sponsored by David Schure and Grant Wagner of Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, explored Russel and Mary Wright’s contributions to American design and Manitoga’s representation of their trendsetting aesthetic.
On March 1, people were able to travel to Madam C. J. Walker’s Dream of Dreams: Villa Lewaro with author and historian A’Lelia Bundles.
Often recognized as America’s first self-made female millionaire, this talk addressed how Walker’s entrepreneurship and personal style translated to the unique architecture and grounds of her early-20th century home, Villa Lewaro, while digging deeper into her life and work, according to a press release.
Bundles’ book On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker has been the inspiration for Self Made, a Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer.
On March 8, the speaker series journeyed to Beauport: Expect the Unexpected with Kristen Weiss, historic New England’s site manager. They explored the unique and ornate designs in the summer home of one of America’s first professional interior designers, Henry Davis Sleeper.
Sleeper’s unique and ornate design concepts were showcased throughout his summer home, Beauport, in Gloucester, Mass., where he hosted a regular cohort of artists and intellectuals, navigating early 20th century society as a gay man, according to Morven Museum.
This talk examined Sleeper’s groundbreaking interior designs, still featured in the house today, as well as Beauport’s architecture and arts and crafts landscape design.
The Speaker Series has been sponsored by Hiltons Princeton.
All programs have been offered in a hybrid format allowing participants to join in-
person or virtually.
The in-person experience at 55 Stockton St. includes light refreshments. It features a cocktail and mocktail inspired by each week’s featured site. Online participants will receive recipes to make the featured drinks at home.
Programs begin at 6:30 p.m. Doors and the virtual waiting room open at 6:00 p.m.
A Zoom link will be sent to all virtual participants upon registration and the day of the program. All registrants will receive access to view a recording following the event.
For all program related questions, please contact Greer Luce, Curator of
Education and Public Programs at [email protected] or 609-924-8144 ext. 106.
Morven Museum & Garden is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m.to 4 p.m.