Conservation and the Arts is a major focus of the Grey Towers Heritage Association Summer 2016 Lecture Series at Grey Towers National Historic Site, Milford, Pike County.

The lectures are free and open to the public.

Grey Towers is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, conservationist and two-term Governor of Pennsylvania.

Public programs are geared toward heightening awareness of the conservation, social and philanthropic contributions that the Pinchot family made to improve the lives of all Americans.

The lectures, which begin at 5:30 pm, show a relation to the Pinchot family and illustrate how writers, painters and photographers had and continue to have a connection to nature and have been able to help others, including the Pinchots, connect to and influence conservation.

A lecture on the spirituality of Gifford Pinchot utilizes excerpts from Pinchot’s diaries to gain insight to his spiritual beliefs, including the afterlife.

The lectures, which will be followed by a light reception and an opportunity to meet the guest speakers, are funded in part with an Orange and Rockland Community Investment Grant.

Lecture schedule is as follows:

-- June 4: “The Means of Seeing: Conservationism and the Nature Essays of John Burroughs.” The Pinchots included Burroughs’ writings in their collection of books that influenced their thinking about nature and conservation. Matthew Nickel, Ph.D., published author and assistant professor of English at Misericordia University, is the guest speaker for this first in a series of lectures illustrating conservation and the arts.

This program is co-hosted by the Gifford Pinchot Audubon Society, Grey Towers Heritage Association and the U.S. Forest Service.

-- July 16: "Jervis McEntee, the Pinchot Family, and the Hudson River School of Art." This illustrated lecture by Kerry Dean Carso, associate professor of art history at SUNY New Paltz, will discuss the landscape painter Jervis McEntee (1828-1891) in relation to his friend and patron James Pinchot.  

A native of Rondout (now Kingston), New York, McEntee was known for his introspective and melancholy paintings of American scenery.  He was part of a circle of artists (including Sanford Gifford, after whom Gifford Pinchot is named) who rented space in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York.  

McEntee had a strong connection to the Milford area.  He visited the Pinchot family at Grey Towers on two occasions and was himself  named after John B. Jervis, the engineer of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, as was the city of Port Jervis.

(Photo: This is Jervis McEntee’s iconic “View on the Hudson Near the Rondout,” from the collection of Richard Sharp.)

This program is co-hosted by the Grey Towers Heritage Association and the U.S. Forest Service.

-- August 27: "The Spirituality of Gifford Pinchot.” Former Grey Towers Director Ed Brannon continues his exploration of Gifford Pinchot’s view of the afterlife and discusses how Pinchot’s personal diaries are a gateway to understanding his spiritual beliefs.

This program is co-hosted by the Grey Towers Heritage Association and the U.S. Forest Service.

-- September 17: “The Clearest Way into the Universe: Nature’s Meaning in the Photographs of Ansel Adams.” Gifford Pinchot was one of the first Americans to recognize that photography could influence the nation’s conservation thinking.

Ansel Adams also was a visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation, and Dr. Brian Carso will present this third in a series of lectures in which he reflects on how Adams’ famous photographs continue to inspire an appreciation for natural beauty and a strong conservation ethic.

This program is co-hosted by the Gifford Pinchot Audubon Society, Grey Towers Heritage Association and the U.S. Forest Service.

All lectures begin at 5:30 pm. Pre-registration strongly recommended as seating is limited. Please call 570-296-9625 or send email to: info@greytowers.org.

For more information on programs, initiatives and other upcoming events, visit the Grey Towers Heritage Association website.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates from Grey Towers.

5/16/2016