Name: Lecture: Sterling Stories: 19th Century American Silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection
Start: 2026-04-16T18:30:00-05:00
Location: McFaddin-Ward House Museum

Lecture: Sterling Stories: 19th Century American Silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection

Join the McFaddin-Ward House Museum for “Sterling Stories: 19th Century American Silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection,” a free public lecture presented by Medill Harvey on Thursday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum’s Visitor Center Lecture Hall (1906 Calder Avenue, Beaumont).
Medill Harvey, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ruth Bigelow Wriston curator of American Decorative Arts and manager of the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art, will give a glimpse into the exceptional artistry, symbolism, and history of 19th century American silver, highlighting exquisite pieces in The Metropolitan Collection. From grand vessels that graced the homes of affluent patrons to intimate domestic, ecclesiastical, and personal items, each piece tells a story.
In conjunction with the lecture, Harvey will offer a free Silver Identification Clinic for the community to be held at the Museum Visitor Center on Thursday, April 16, from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. (reservations recommended).
For the past three decades, Harvey has held roles in American Decorate Arts at The Met. In her current positions as Ruth Bigelow Wriston curator of American Decorative Arts and manager of the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art, Harvey oversees the collections of American silver, jewelry, and other metalwork, as well as mid-19th-century furniture. Previously, she contributed to The Met’s 2009 and 2011 reinstallations of the American silver and jewelry collections and the exhibition “Silversmiths to the Nation” (2007).
Harvey is co-author of Early American Silver in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013) and a contributing author for American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (2016). Her most recent publication, Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co. (2024), was written to accompany an exhibition presented at The Met in 2024.
Medill graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a BA in art history, graduated with distinction from The Works of Art Course at Sotheby’s Educational Studies in London, and was awarded a master’s degree with honors in decorative art history by the Cooper Hewitt Museum / Parsons.
McFaddin-Ward House Museum lectures are admission-free and open to the public, but space is limited. Doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, call 409-832-2134.
For those unable to attend, the full lecture will be available for viewing on the museum YouTube Channel (youtube.com/@mcfaddinwardhouse), Facebook (facebook.com/McFaddinWardHouse), and website (mcfaddin-ward.org/about/videos) after the event.