Talk

Art in Context | Picturing New Haven in the Colonial Era and Early Republic

Free admission
About this program

Taking inspiration from the YCBA's research into an eighteenth-century group portrait of Elihu Yale, his family, and an enslaved child, Michael Morand discusses how visual records in the university's collections shape our understanding of New Haven History in the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. He will consider which stories might be most predominant in public memory and which stories might be more absent. The talk will also examine how we might recover and recenter narratives for a fuller reckoning with the local community’s history.

About Michael Morand

Michael Morand, Yale BA 1987, MDiv 1993, is director of community engagement at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. He leads efforts to bring people to the library and the library to the people through events, public programs, tours, and partnerships with K–12 schools, libraries, neighborhood groups, as well as civic and cultural organizations. Michael was previously Yale’s deputy chief communications officer and associate vice president for New Haven and State Affairs.  

Art in Context

Presented by faculty, staff, student guides, and visiting scholars, these gallery talks focus on a particular work of art in the museum’s collections or special exhibitions through an in-depth look at its style, subject matter, technique, or time period.

Top image
Daniel Bowen, "A Front View of Yale-College, and the College Chapel, New-Haven," woodcut, Yale University Buildings and Grounds Photographs (RU 703). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.