GIBSON HOUSE MUSEUM PROGRAMS, OCTOBER 2009 to AUGUST 2010
“ The Gibsons and Their World, Celebrating 150 Years”
Receptions at 5:30 p.m.; programs begin at 6 unless otherwise noted.
Reservations recommended. Please call the Gibson House Museum at 617-267-6338 or e-mail info@thegibsonhouse.org to reserve a space.

On view through December 2010
Art Exhibit of Original works by Hannah Barrett Inspired by the Gibson Family Collection “Tales from the House of Gibson,” Hannah Barrett's portrait series inspired by Charles Hammond Gibson Jr. and the collections of the Gibson House Museum, opened on 11 April 2010 and runs through 31 December 2010. The exhibition is on view during regular museum tours, which are held Wednesday through Sunday, at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. Hannah Barrett's work can also be viewed at www.hannahbarrett.net
Included with tour ($9, $6 for students and seniors, $3 for children; free for Gibson House Museum members).

August 11
Tour of Back Bay Architecture and History led by Museum Director Charles Swift. Gibson House Museum Executive Director Charles Swift will give a walking tour of the Back Bay. Come learn how the Back Bay developed into one of Boston's most desirable residential neighborhoods. We'll cover a different area than the July tour, so repeat attendees are welcome!
Free for Gibson House Museum members, $10 non-members. Tours will start at 6 P.M. at 137 Beacon Street.

July 28 and August 18
The Charlie Gibson Literary & Cocktail Society Gibson House Museum founder Charles Hammond Gibson was a noted bon vivant and writer, whose works included non-fiction, poetry, and drama. To honor his legacy, the Gibson House Museum brings back The Charlie Gibson Literary & Cocktail Society for Summer 2010. We're having our rained-out Bastille Day bash on July 28th, and a send-off to summer on August 18th. We hope you can join us for one or both of these special events and enjoy cocktails, food, and a short tour showcasing some Gibson House history normally not on view to the public.
Tour at 6:30, Cocktails at 7:15. $40 per person. Reserve now as space is very limited! Please purchase tickets through PayPal below.

Charlie Gibson Literary and Cocktail Society Parties

June 30, 2010 $40.00 July 14, 2010 $40.00 August 18, 2010 $40.00 All Three $100.00

Some past events:

May 11, 2010: Victorian Architecture in Boston’s South End. Both the Back Bay and the South End of Boston were built on made land. What other similarities do these two neighborhoods share? South End Historical Society Historian John Neale talked about the architectural history of South End, which immediately predated the Back Bay as Boston's most fashionable neighborhood.

January 19, 2010: The Gibson Family. Talk by Charles Swift, Executive Director, highlighting new research on Gibson family history and the museum’s photography collection.

November 15, 2009: Victorian Flower Arranging with Donna Morrissey. Donna Morrissey is a Master Flower Show Judge and former Chairman for Judges Council of National Garden Clubs. She is a Senior Associate of the Museum of Fine Arts and a Floral Designer and Design Instructor at the MFA. Donna is a member of the Garden Club of the Back Bay and Wareham Garden Club. She is a popular presenter of Floral Design Programs and Workshops and has her own floral design business, Chestnut Hill Celebrations.

Refreshments will include assorted fine teas, iced tea, mint lemonade, petite tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, mini scones, tea breads and tea cookies.

June 16, 2009: Back Bay Alleys Walking Tour. William Young, Senior Preservation Planner with the City of Boston Environment Department, leads a walking tour of Back Bay alleys.

April 16, 2009: America's Kitchens. Talk and book-signing by Historic New England Curator Nancy Carlisle. Nancy Carlisle, a curator for more than twenty years at Historic New England, works with some of the most important historic kitchens in the country and has written and lectured widely on the material culture of domestic life.

America’s Kitchens, a new book by Nancy Carlisle, highlights New England hearths, detached kitchens on southern plantations, Spanish colonial kitchens of the Southwest, elaborate nineteenth-century kitchens in the Midwest, and middle-class open-plan homes of 1950s suburbia to tell the story of this important room. The book traces technological developments such as the introduction of the cast-iron cook stove, the efficiency of the Hoosier cabinet, and the impact of the frozen food industry to suggest how these innovations have transformed kitchen work and changed women’s lives.

February 11, 2009: The Gibson House and 19th Century Building Technology. Gibson House Museum Executive Director Charles Swift is the featured speaker at this program hosted by the Gibson House Museum. Mr. Swift will talk about the evolution of building technology in the Back Bay from 1859 to the present, using the Gibson House Museum as a case study.

The Gibson House has essentially been preserved as it appeared during three generations of Gibson family occupancy (1859-1954). It can be considered a sophisticated mid-nineteenth-century “machine for living.” Through the years, as building technology advanced, the Gibson family either replaced or retrofitted systems, often abandoning older systems in place. This “system layering” reveals the sequence of advancing building technology in everyday domestic life at the Gibson House.

December 10, 2008: The Art of the Personal Letter: A Guide to Connecting Through the Written Word. Lecture by Back Bay resident Margaret Shepherd, author of more than a dozen books on calligraphy, letter writing and conversation. Ms. Shepherd will talk about her latest book, The Art of the Personal Letter, followed by a book signing and “question and answer” period. In an age where much of our communication is by way of e-mail, where does letter writing fit in? On display will be some of the personal letters of Charles Gibson, an inveterate letter writer.

December 7, 2008: Neighborhood Holiday Tours. Tours of the Gibson House decorated for the holidays.

April 23, 2008: “Growing Up in Boston”: reminiscences by John W. Sears. To many John Sears is the consummate Bostonian. He has lived on Beacon Hill in the shadow of the State House for almost his entire life. He has spent many years in public service, serving as Boston city councilor, state representative, chairman of the Metropolitan District Commission, sheriff of Suffolk County, and chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Committee. In 1982 he ran as the Republican candidate for governor against Michael Dukakis.

Mr. Sears’ youth overlapped with Charles Gibson’s later years. The Beacon Hill and Back Bay of his childhood in the 1930s and ’40s were beginning to show signs of the social change which inspired Mr. Gibson to preserve his family home as a museum. This evening offers a very special opportunity to share in Mr. Sears’ unique memories of those bygone times.