Carolyn Muraskin

“Soldier, Engineer, Architect, Patriot: The Unsung Career of Montgomery Meigs”

Montgomery C. Meigs is one of the most remarkable yet overlooked figures in 19th-century American history. As Quartermaster General of the Union army, Meigs provided indispensable aid to Abraham Lincoln. He was responsible for keeping over two million Union troops well-equipped. His idea of standardized clothing sizes continues to influence us today. As caravans of Union casualties filled Washington DC, Meigs proposed converting the Lee family estate at Arlington into a final resting place for Federal soldiers.

Meigs was the visionary behind the city’s aqueduct system, which brought a reliable source of fresh water to the capital for the first time and remains operational to this day. As an architect, Meigs oversaw the expansion of the U.S. Capitol Building, including a “new” cast iron dome, still the largest of its kind. His last and most meaningful legacy was the Pension Office (now National Building Museum).

Meigs’ final design was his own imposing sarcophagus at the center of Arlington National Cemetery. Elevated on a stone pedestal, his self-composed epitaph succinctly reads: “Soldier, Engineer, Architect, Scientist, Patriot.”

Carolyn Muraskin is the founder of DC Design Tours, which offers specialized historical tours of Washington DC that focus on architecture, urban planning, and design. Carolyn and her team lead tours throughout the city, including notable areas like the National Mall, Embassy Row, Capitol Hill, U Street, Adams Morgan, Georgetown, and Historic Anacostia. Their tours explore Washington’s most prominent architectural marvels and best kept secrets, while discussing the conflicts, controversies, and personalities involved in the development of America’s Capital City.

DC Design Tours has partnered with a wide range of organizations to bring the design of the District to a larger audience, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Academy of Sciences, Rhodes Scholars, Brookings Institute, and the Discovery Channel. Carolyn is also a lecturer and guide for the Smithsonian Institution.

Carolyn holds a degree from the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. As a former architectural designer, Carolyn worked on mixed-use, historic restoration, master planning, and retail projects in the Washington area. She left her drafting desk behind in 2015 and founded DC Design Tours so she could talk about buildings rather than draw them. Carolyn lives in Northwest DC and has a passion for all things brick and mortar!

Max Alvarez

“Costume Design in Film: From Sketchpad to Soundstage”

In this epic multimedia presentation, film historian Max Alvarez leads us on a stylish journey through six decades of cinematic costume design, starting with the earliest days of Hollywood and culminating in groundbreaking work from the 1970s and beyond. Costume design in cinema is among the least studied and least appreciated of the filmmaking disciplines. Consider how costume artistry throughout movie history has enhanced our memories of unforgettable films: among them, the gray suit designed by Edith Head for Kim Novak in Vertigo; Irene Sharaff’s massive hoop dress for Deborah Kerr in The King and I; William Travilla’s pink gown and full-length gloves for a diamond-wearing Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Helen Rose’s provocative white dress for Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Cecil Beaton’s spectacular “Ascot Gavotte” fashion show in My Fair Lady. Through rare archival material, including remarkable preliminary costume sketches, film fashionistas can study the process of designing clothes for actors from sketchpad to soundstage.

Note: Due to unforeseen professional commitments, Mr. Alvarez will present through live Zoom but will be able to answer questions at the conclusion.

New York City author, film historian, and public speaker Max Alvarez has been lecturing on world cinema culture for nearly three decades, presenting hundreds of lectures, seminars, study tours, and film screening events. A visiting scholar and guest lecturer for The Smithsonian Institution and former film curator at National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., Alvarez’s presentation partnerships have included Manhattan’s New Plaza Cinema, Museum of the Moving Image, the National Arts Club; University of California, Los Angeles and Berkeley; the American Film Institute, The Library of Congress, the U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Scholars Program, the National Gallery of Art in D.C., and numerous embassies and cultural offices.

Among film subjects discussed by Alvarez are classic Hollywood musicals, film noir, Hollywood’s 1950s technological battles with TV, and the careers of such legendary filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, John Huston, and Stanley Kubrick.

Alvarez’s book, The Crime Films of Anthony Mann, was reissued by University Press of Mississippi in 2021, and his prominent essay on Thornton Wilder’s Shadow of a Doubt screenplay appeared in the Northwestern University Press anthology, Thornton Wilder/New Perspectives, in 2014. In addition, his historical essays on cinema have also appeared in the distinguished Film History: An International Journal from Indiana University.

Jonathan Kavalier

“Celebrating Beatrix Farrand’s Legacy at Dumbarton Oaks”

Upon first visiting Dumbarton Oaks in June of 1922, Beatrix Farrand remarked that it offered “opportunities for development on so many different lines that it is difficult to know which to emphasize most strongly in the beginning.” Over the next three decades, she designed and guided the future direction of the gardens, even as she saw them transformed from private spaces into living laboratories to support a home for the humanities. A living masterpiece, Dumbarton Oaks is widely considered the best-preserved example of Farrand’s work and a lasting tribute to her creative genius. Now a century later, we celebrate Beatrix Farrand as a pioneering woman who shaped the emerging profession of landscape architecture. She pushed boundaries in her field and set high horticultural and design standards that continue to challenge and inspire today. Join Jonathan Kavalier, Director of Dumbarton Oaks’ gardens and grounds, as he shares insights into Farrand’s life and work at Dumbarton Oaks, and how the gardeners are preserving her enduring vision.

Jonathan Kavalier has served as Director of Gardens and Grounds at Dumbarton Oaks since 2018 where he focuses on preserving Beatrix Farrand’s historic design within a 21st century horticultural context. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture and International Agriculture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and he has spent the past 25 years working in private and public horticulture in the Washington DC area as well as abroad. After several years of commercial landscape design, Kavalier managed a design and build firm in Madagascar focusing on ornamental gardens and ecological restoration using endemic Malagasy plants. From 2008 through 2015, Kavalier oversaw several public gardens for the Smithsonian Institute, where he facilitated connections between people and plants. From 2015 through 2018, for the Architect of the Capitol, Kavalier served as management analyst where he led strategic planning and organizational development efforts for several jurisdictions including the Capitol Grounds, and the United States Botanic Garden. He is a Certified Grounds Manager through the Professional Grounds Management Society, and a Senior Excellence in Government Fellow through the Partnership for Public Service in Washington, DC. He serves on the American Boxwood Society Board and the Tudor Place Advisory Board and is also a certified Crucial Conversations trainer.