Winner of the Ruth Emery Award (2018) Rare Light is a collection of essays exploring little known facets of the life and career of a major American Impressionist painter. J. Alden Weir (1852–1919) painted some of his finest canvases while living in Windham in eastern Connecticut's picturesque "Quiet Corner," and this rural location played a crucial role in Weir's artistic development. The four essays that comprise this book offer in-depth contextual information about the architecture, culture, environment, and history of the region, allowing us to see Connecticut as it appeared in Weir's lifetime. Interweaving photos, paintings, and letters—some never before published—Rare Light documents the artist's sense of Windham as a place for social gatherings, physical and psychic rest, and art making. Taken together, the essays celebrate the interconnectedness of art, architecture, family, history, and place. Includes essays by Charles Burlingham Jr., Rachel Carley, Anne E. Dawson, and Jamie Eves.

"Willie has rare lights...rare lights!" Abraham Lincoln said to his secretary John Hay November 4, 1861 after the publication of Willie's poem "Lines on the Death of Colonel Baker' in the Washington Newspaper National Republican. The short life of William Wallace Lincoln has been given little attention in the biographies of his father, or in other writings on the Lincoln family. In 1850, in the Lincoln home in Springfield, Illinois, there came, just four days before Christmas on December 21 the winter solstice, a real live Christmas present, a baby boy. The child was named William Wallace after his Uncle Dr. William Smith Wallace originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania who had married Mary Lincoln's sister Frances Todd. He was of course, promptly called Willie. Ruth Painter Randall and Julia (Taft) Bayne have published books that do some shed some light on Willie's life but do not give Willie his due as a remarkable gifted boy, the favorite of his father and indeed most like him in temperament, intelligence, empathy and wit. When Willie tragically died in the White House at age 11 on February 20, 1862 of multiple diseases, most notably typhoid and smallpox, Lincoln was devastated. Willie's funeral on February 24 was the only time the whole federal government was shut down other than for a president. After years of research and two previously published historical novels featuring Willie Lincoln, the author has tracked down everything ever written about and everything Willie was alleged to have said from primary and secondary sources to finally bring this special lost son of Lincoln back to life and perhaps, as Willie had told his tutor Alexander Williamson in 1861 that he wanted to be a teacher or preacher, had he lived he may have even been president.

All museum activities converge in the public forum of the exhibition – regardless of whether the exhibit is held in the physical museum or is on the Web. Since the first edition of this book in 2002, there has been a world-wide explosion of new galleries and exhibition halls, and new ideas about how exhibitions should look and communicate. The definition of what an exhibition is has changed as exhibitions can now be virtual; non-traditional migratory and pop-up spaces play host to temporary displays; social media has created amazing opportunities for participatory engagement and shifted authority away from experts to the public; and as time-constrained audiences demand more dynamic, interactive, and mobile applications, museum leadership, managers, staff, and designers are rising to these challenges in innovative ways. Drawing on years of experience and top-flight expertise, Barry Lord and Maria Piacente detail the exhibition process in a straightforward way that can be easily adapted by institutions of any size. They explore the exhibition development process in greater detail, providing the technical and practical methodologies museum professionals need today. They’ve added new features and expanded chapters on project management, financial planning and interactive multimedia while retaining the essential content related to interpretive planning, curatorship, and roles and responsibilities. This second edition of the standby Manual of Museum Exhibitions is arranged in four parts: Why – Covering the purpose of exhibits, where exhibit ideas come from, and how to measure success Where – Covering facilities and spaces, going into details including security, and interactive spaces What – A look at both permanent collection displays, and non-collection displays, as well as virtual, participatory, temporary, travelling displays, and retail sales How – Who is involved, planning, curatorship, and content development, design, multimedia, fabrication and installation, financial planning, and project management Over 130 figures and photographs illustrate every step of the exhibit process. No museum can be without this critical, detailed guide to an essential function.