Homewood Museum Architecture Lecture: Homewood's Backyard

Description

Homewood's architectural footprint extended beyond the main house to include several outbuildings, most notably the still extant and recently restored brick privy. For this year's architecture lecture, Michael Olmert, a professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an expert on 18th-century Mid-Atlantic outbuildings, will give an illustrated lecture on the architecture of Homewood's privy. The talk will be followed by a reception with the speaker.

Drawing from his highly regarded book Kitchens, Smokehouses, & Privies (Cornell University Press, 2009), Olmert will discuss how Homewood's privy compares to the outbuildings that can still be found at obscure rural farmsteads throughout the Tidewater and greater Mid-Atlantic and explain how these well-made buildings actually functioned, their architecture, their patterns of use, their folklore, and even their literary presence.

Schedule of Events

• 6-7 p.m.: Talk and Q&A with Michael Olmert
• 7-8 p.m.: Reception

About the Speaker

Michael Olmert has been teaching Shakespeare and drama at the University of Maryland, College Park, English Department for 37 years. He's spoken frequently on the "The Invention of Colonial Williamsburg." He's written The Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986-2016), The Smithsonian Book of Books (Smithsonian Institution, 1992), and Milton's Teeth & Ovid's Umbrella (Simon & Schuster, 1996). His television writing has won three Primetime Emmys. He's written 80 TV documentaries as well as five books, seven plays, three feature films, an IMAX film, and over 200 articles, essays, and reviews. In 2005, he was inducted into the University of Maryland Alumni Hall of Fame.