History   

Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century Benedictine abbess, was a true ‘Renaissance’ woman: she composed frisson-worthy music, wrote sophisticated theology, and practiced medicine.  But she is perhaps best known for the flood of mystical visions she experienced as a young child, which she recorded alongside otherworldly illustrations.  Come take a peek inside Hildegard’s fascinating experiences!

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

For students who want to register for all three October History Happy Hour classes at the same time for a combined discounted rate. Series includes:

Start a Tab! Medieval Tavern Life - Wednesday, October 12

Medieval Selfies - Wednesday, October 19 

Potions & Poison Gardens - Wednesday, October 26

To register for individual classes of the series, please click on the class titles above.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

A place for boisterous misbehavior as well as moralizing critique, the tavern was the social center of the medieval city.  In this lecture, we will explore the cultural practices around tavern-going, including what and when medieval people drank, who they might encounter at the bar, and what contemporary writers thought about all of it!

Optional pairing: Leffe (Belgian Pale Ale) https://leffe.com/en 

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

In an age when most people didn’t see their own faces regularly, self-reflection in the form of self-portraiture takes on a whole new meaning.  Rounded out with a look at medieval mirrors (both real and metaphorical), this lecture will consider the medieval “selfie” and how contemporaries immortalized their own faces in art.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Even if witches weren’t brewing cauldrons full of eye-of-newt, medieval people certainly used the substances available to them to concoct all kinds of mixtures—for better or worse!  Come tour through a medieval garden full of plants both perfumed and poisonous, and examine the recipes that have survived the centuries.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

“The Dakota may as well be in the Dakotas!” So they said when the luxury apartment building was put up on the unelectrified 8th Avenue—soon to be renamed Central Park West—across the street from Central Park. Hotels, churches, museums, and more luxury apartment buildings followed in The Dakota’s wake. Learn how this neighborhood of shacks, free-roaming goats, and a community of predominantly African Americans called Seneca Village was taken over to become the exclusive address of the rich and famous.
Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Along the Hudson River is a place where President Ulysses Grant lies and which Billy Joel once romanticized in “New York State of Mind”: Riverside Drive. Developed later than the luxurious Fifth Avenue and Central Park West, the hilly, curving Riverside Drive runs along Riverside Park (also designed by Central Park’s Frederick Law Olmstead and later Calvert Vaux) and still features architectural beauties like the Schinasi marble home, the Beaux Arts Grant’s Tomb, and the country’s tallest church, Riverside Church. This lecture will explore these landmarks and many more.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

From Manhattan’s oldest surviving church, St. Paul’s (built in 1766), to the city’s largest synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, these and many other historical houses of worship have remained centers of their neighborhoods withstanding changes in their communities, including economic downturns and significant historical events. Listen to the stories behind some of the most well-known houses of worship in Manhattan that are still standing, including the Eldridge Street Synagogue, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the unfinished St. John the Divine.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.