Lecture: "Wharfed Out"

"Wharfed Out: The Promises, Pitfalls, and Public Historical Consequences of Early-American Waterfront Development"

Saturday, January 26, 2019 | 2:00 PM | Riverport Wooden Boat School Classroom

$5/person | HRMM members FREE

Come learn about the merchants, laborers, and property-owners who built and oversaw the waterfront landscapes of east coast cities in the late 1700s and early 1800s. See how their efforts shaped the waterfront landscapes of today, which are now sites of modern development and change. From Manhattan’s East River, to Boston’s harbor, to Philadelphia’s riverfront, Americans filled in acres of shoreline to create urban land where there had once been water. This lecture explores the social, economic, and architectural ramifications of urban waterfront development from 1760 to 1820 through massive construction projects. It follows the stories of men and women, including New York’s Theophylact Bache, Boston’s Hannah Rowe, and Philadelphia’s William Taylor, whose lives were entangled in efforts to replace colonial-era ports with state-of-the-art infrastructure in the early years of the new republic. The lecture will conclude with an exploration of present-day waterfront development and its ties to these early-American precedents.

Kathryn Lasdow

Kathryn Lasdow is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Public History Concentration at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. She previously worked as a historian and curator at the Brooklyn Historical Society in New York and as a museum educator at the White House Historical Association in Washington, D.C. Dr. Lasdow received her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, her M.A. in Architectural History from the University of Virginia, and her B.A. in History and Music Performance from the College of William and Mary.