All presentations are held at the Ayer Mansion, 395 Commonwealth Avenue

6:30 PM: Wine and cheese reception

7:00 PM: Presentation

$35 per person per lecture

$10 for students (25 years and under)

$100 Series Ticket (all three lectures) (single)

$195 Series Tickets (all three lectures) (couple)

$350 Sponsor Ticket (2 Series tickets plus photography show opening)

To order tickets online, please click here or call 617-536-2586.

All proceeds benefit the Campaign for the Ayer Mansion, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.  Tickets are deductible to the extent allowable by law.

Please note: tickets are non-refundable, but may be transferred to other individuals.

2020 Ayer Mansion Lecture Series

The Way We Dress: Clothes and Meaning

Image: Detail, Elizabeth Bull [Price] wedding petticoat, collection of The Bostonian Society; Hannah Edwards embroidered wedding shoe, collection of the Connecticut Historical Society; Detail, Rebecca Tailer [Byles] Spitalfields silk damask wedding dress, collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

From the special occasion to the everyday, from made to order to the remade, clothing opens a window into our values, our society, our status, and our hopes for the future. Preserving and studying historic clothing provides a uniquely personal understanding of how past generations lived and expressed themselves.

Join us to hear three noted New England clothing historians and curators bring us back through time through the lens of fashion. 

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

‘An easy Air’:  Dress and Performance in the 18th and 19th Centuries

David E. (Ned) Lazaro

Curator of Textiles, Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Clothing Matters:  The Smith College Historic Dress Collection

Catherine (Kiki) Smith

Professor of Theatre, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Three New England Brides: Self-Fashioning in the Georgian Era

Dr. Kimberly Alexander

University of New Hampshire

Join us also for a special photography presentation and reception (tickets extra):

Tuesday, May 12, 2020 Opening Reception and Presentation (Through June 30, 2020)

Fashion Forward: Hollywood Steps Out, 1920-1935

Scott C. Steward

Editor-in-Chief, American Ancestors & New England Historic Genealogical Society