Roman Historical Relief

A Slide Lecture Presented By:
Dr. Nancy L. Thompson,
Associate Museum Educator, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mid-Manhattan Library

I attended this lecture tonight at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NYPL. This branch is diagonally across the street from the head library. The one with the famous lions out front.

I admit I'm not well educated on Roman historical relief, but I'm a firm believer that you don't know unless you give it a try. I knew it was going to be a slide presentation and I have nothing against slides, as I'm a visual person and love looking at historical items. What I didn't expect were the types of people in the crowd that night. There were many there who were, shall we say, the free library lecture types. The thing about culture and the city is that the type of venue sums up the many types of people who will be in attendance. This, I learned tonight. I know that statement reflects on me as well, but, I'm a different kettle of fish all together you know!

Dr. Thompson was incredibly on top of her game while explaining each slide. She was even able to put a certain someone up front in their respective place. This person tried (the operative word here) to dominate the discussion. I got the feeling that Ms. Thompson was either used to this person, or used to this type of person. Kudos to you lecturer, because I despise these kind of people.

Dr. Thompson focused mostly on the following:

Arch of Constantine
Arch of Septimius Severus
Arch of Titus
Trajan's Column
Column of Marcus Aurelius

Although I was tired, the room was a bit on the warm side, and the lecture was longer than expected, I found it educational and enjoyable.