Ladies Mile: Shopping in the Gilded Age
2022-04-07 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York)
During the Gilded Age, the Ladies’ Mile was New York City’s retail center.
Because of its popularity, women were able to shop unaccompanied by men for the first time. It was an area where finest objects in America were sold, from furs and French fashions to jewelry. King’s Handbook of New York City glowingly described the “fascinating, alluring, irresistible” shops that lined Broadway, 14th Street, and Sixth Avenue. The author demanded to know, “What are the Parisian boulevards, or even Regent Street, to this magnificent panorama of mercantile display?”
Join Royal Oak and architectural historian Matt Postal, for a closer look at the Ladies’ Mile Historic District and the lavish department stores and specialty shops that once flourished here. Starting with A. T. Stewart, who moved his trend-setting dry goods business to an entire block of Broadway at 10th Street in 1862, we’ll window shop and shop till we drop, stopping at masonry and cast-iron structures associated with Tiffany’s, Macy’s, Siegel-Cooper, Lord & Taylor and Stern Brothers — some of America’s first great retailers.

LIVE
Thursday, April 7 | 4:00 p.m. ET
Online via Zoom Meeting
FREE to ROF members only
RENT
Friday, April 8 to Monday, April 18
Rent the recorded lecture to watch at your leisure
FREE to ROF members only

Eleanor Coade and her Remarkable Stone
2022-03-30 14:00 - 15:30
Eleanor Coade was a successful Georgian entrepreneur who created artificial stone for use in monuments, which she called Coade stone. Inventing the recipe and the firing technique, Mrs. Coade bought an existing artificial stone factory in South London in 1769 and turned out Coade stone architectural detailing, urns, tombs, and statues for the next 50 years. She combined artistic flair with successful marketing skills and every architect of the time including Robert Adam, Sir John Soane, John Nash, and James and Samuel Wyatt commissioned her work for their projects. Her manufactory’s output was mostly classical in style, but also produced wares in Gothic, Egyptian, and Chinese styles. Mrs. Coade’s genius lay in her entrepreneurship—convincing designers that her product was better than natural stone for its durability and weatherproof nature.

In an era, when successful businesswomen were far from typical, Eleanor Coade was exceptional. Many examples of Coade stone made during and after the inventor’s lifetime remain in the UK and beyond, including the South Bank lion at the east end of Westminster Bridge The Landmark Trust’s historian, Caroline Stanford will talk about this successful 18th-century business woman and her business practice. She will illustrate how Coade stone transformed late-Georgian architecture, including its use in America. She will also feature Belmont, Coade’s own villa, rescued and restored by the Landmark Trust and available to rent.

Caroline Stanford
Caroline Stanford read Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford and has two Masters in Early Modern History from Birbeck College London and in Historic Conservation at Oxford Brookes. She has been The Landmark Trust’s historian since 2001 and writes and speaks extensively about the Landmark Trust’s buildings. She was research historian for the Landmark Trust’s 2015 restoration of Eleanor Coade’s seaside villa, Belmont in Lyme Regis. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Caroline has also served on the committee of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. She co-authored Landmark: A History of Britain in 50 Buildings and has contributed to many television and radio programmes. She is currently working on a part time DPhil in Architectural History at Oxford University about Fired Artificial Stone 1650-1850 and is a leading Coade scholar.
Twitter & Instagram: @LandmarkHistory

LIVE
Wednesday, March 30 | 2:00 p.m. (ET)
Online via Zoom Webinar
$15 ROF members; $20 non-members
RENT
From Thursday, March 31 to Monday, April 11
Rent the recorded lecture to watch at your leisure
$15 ROF members; $20 non-members

Royal Flirt or Femme Fatale?: Elizabeth I
2022-03-23 14:00 - 15:30
Queen Elizabeth I, by English School. ©National Trust Images
Only the second crowned regnant Queen of England, Elizabeth I’s love life was no private matter. From the day she was born, Elizabeth was a pawn in the royal marriage game. Surprisingly, she managed to get through her father’s, her half-brother’s, and her halfsister’s reigns without being married to form an advantageous foreign alliance. That meant that the topic of her marriage was a prime consideration when she came to the throne.
Elizabeth I’s marital status was serious business. According to Count de Feria, the Spanish Ambassador, “Everything depends upon the husband this woman may take.” Most people thought a leading candidate was Elizabeth’s long-time friend and suitor Robert Dudley. Their relationship was the cause of international speculation and gossip that likely dulled the interest of some foreign prospects. But Dudley wasn’t the only man trying to win the Queen’s heart and hand.
With suitors from all over Europe, and plenty of willing candidates right at home, Elizabeth conducted domestic and international business by considering and gently declining marriage proposals. Did she ever plan to marry? Or did she spend her reign winning the game of courtly love, deliberately playing the men against each other, and remaining the ever-unattainable object of desire? Scholar Carol Ann Lloyd looks at the men who tried to marry the Queen and explores Elizabeth’s possible motives for claiming and keeping her title of Virgin Queen.

Carol Ann Lloyd
Carol Ann Lloyd is a popular speaker and author who specializes in Early Modern History, particularly English royal history, the Tudors, and Shakespeare. She has enjoyed speaking audiences across the country about Spies in the Tudor Court, Henry VIII and his Six Wives, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, the Wars of the Roses, Jane Austen, Mothers of the Monarchs, and Shakespeare. She is a popular speaker for Smithsonian, Royal Oak Foundation, Agecroft Hall, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University, TEDx, and numerous community venues. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and holds graduate degrees in Education from the University of Virginia and English from the University of Utah. The former Manager of Visitor Education of Folger Shakespeare Library, Carol Ann now takes interactive Shakespeare programs into schools. She also delivers corporate communication workshops for organizations in the Washington, DC area and is the author of Building Relationships, One Conversation at a Time: A Guide for Work and Home. Carol Ann is currently writing a book about the Tudors and her Great Courses program about conversations. She loves traveling to London and experiencing history up close and personal.
LIVE
Wednesday, March 23 | 6:00 p.m. (ET)
Online via Zoom Webinar
$15 ROF members; $20 non-members
RENT
From Thursday, March 24 through Monday, April 4
Rent the recorded lecture to watch at your leisure
$15 ROF members; $20 non-members

Pomp & Circumstance: Royal Jubilees from George III to Elizabeth II
2022-02-28 13:00 - 2022-03-12 18:00
Online Lecture
Live and Recorded
$15 members | $20 non-members
Queen Elizabeth’s visit on May 3, 2007 at Colonial Williamsburg
While royal jubilees have been recorded since the 1300s, today the term is closely associated with the ceremony and spectacle surrounding the celebrations of the life and reign of the British Monarch.
The first British ruler to mark 50 years on the throne in any significant way was George III, followed by Queen Victoria, and HM Queen Elizabeth II. These Royal celebrations included feasts, speeches, fireworks, and commemorative memorabilia. King George III’s Golden Jubilee in 1809 was celebrated throughout England—one Oxfordshire village named every child born that year George or Charlotte after the King and Queen.
In 1897, the world’s attention focused on Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The grand occasion was marked by the attendance of the crowned heads of Europe, and also by a poignant patriotic display across the world, a symbolic celebration of the vast empire that ruled close to a quarter of the earth’s inhabitants. Enterprising merchants capitalized on the event by printing the Queen’s profile on everything from porcelain beakers to picture postcards, cocoa tins to bottles of cod liver oil.
HM Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Diamond Diadem, by Cecil Beaton, 1955. Royal Collection Trust © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2012
Thousands lined London’s streets hoping to catch a glimpse of the imperial procession while the British, American elite enjoyed exceptional views along the route. HM Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 2022 with tours of the UK and Commonwealth, processions, fireworks, and beacon bonfires. The Queen highlighted her 2012 Diamond Jubilee by traveling with Prince Phillip in the golden barge, Gloriana, the lead vessel in a 1,000-boat procession up the Thames. On February 6, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II will be first British Monarch to celebrate a 70-year reign—a Platinum Jubilee—with celebrations planned in June.
Join us for a lecture that is history in the making! Ms. Klingner’s talk will provide an insider’s view of past Royal Jubilees including the celebrations and the commemorative souvenirs. She will describe George III’s fete as well as share details of Queen Victoria’s spectacular event recorded by spectators and the queen herself. Ms. Klingner will also show rarely seen footage of Queen Victoria’s procession and video of Jubilee processions marking the current queen’s reign.
LIVE
Monday, February 28 | 6:00 p.m. (EDT)
Online via Zoom Webinar
$15 members; $20 non-members
RENT
Between Tuesday, March 1 and Saturday, March 12
Rent the recorded lecture to watch at your leisure
$15 members; $20 non-members
