Military historian Kevin Weddle examines three consequential campaigns that shaped the path and outcome of the Civil War: Antietam, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. He covers the background and the conduct of each and considers how the Union and the Confederacy developed and executed their respective military strategies within the context of a bitter and divisive political environment.

With entries ranging from the Manhattan to mixology, sloe gin to stills, The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails is the ultimate comprehensive guide to understanding what’s in your glass. The book’s editor in chief David Wondrich, associate editor Noah Rothbaum, and contributor Philip Greene serve up a lively and informative evening in which they discuss the challenges and rewards of creating this major contribution to our understanding of civilized drinking. Four sample cocktails are served during the event, along with light snacks.

In the late 1830s and ’40s, telegraph lines expanded alongside new railroad tracks and created new professional opportunities for women. Later, as men were drafted into the military during the Civil War, more than 100,000 women took their places. Early pioneer women telegraphers were still the exception rather than the rule, but they blazed a trail for women to follow in the century of progress to come. Patricia LaBounty, a curator at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum, explores the complex and exciting world of women working on the railroad in the United States.

Students find out why we see and communicate color differently, how light affects color perception, what the Impressionist color palette was, and how the artists painted.

The 48th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the late-16th to the early 21st century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in a 6-concert series held mostly on Saturdays. This concert features music of John Jenkins and William Lawes with the Smithsonian Consort of Viols.

The 48th season of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society features musical masterpieces from the late-16th to the early 21st century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments in a 6-concert series held on Sundays. This concert features music of John Jenkins and William Lawes with the Smithsonian Consort of Viols.

For approximately five centuries during the second millennium B.C.E., the Egyptian city of Thebes served as the backdrop for the construction of a bewildering array of religious temples, memorial complexes, and royal tombs. Historian Justin M. Jacobs introduces the chief cultural, religious, and political themes of the monuments of ancient Thebes: the Karnak and Luxor temples of the East Bank, the memorial temples of the West Bank, and the necropolis in the Valley of the Kings.

The 2,650-acre campus of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland, encompasses a mix of forests, farmland, wetlands, and shoreline and is home to some of the world’s most enduring environmental research projects. Spend the day with SERC’s expert staff as you explore this environmental research hub and learn about its cutting-edge ecological studies.

April and May are magical in the Enid A. Haupt Garden. Sketch there using watercolors to capture the changing light of the season.

As one of the most significant categories of painting in Western art, portraiture offers a window into both individual identities and broader social and cultural values. In a 4-part series, art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine looks closely at a variety of aspects of portraiture in historical contexts, providing a deeper understanding of the significance of this pictorial genre. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)