
What we’re about
Come join us as we visit embassies and museums in Washington, DC.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in NY - Film History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in NY - Film History Livestream
We invite you to join us for two documentary film screenings on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire: Triangle: Remembering the Fire (HBO) & American Experience: Triangle Fire (PBS).
During and after the screenings there will be opportunities to discuss the films with your fellow participants via Zoom.The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers - 123 women and girls and 23 men - who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, falling, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Italian or Jewish immigrant women and girls aged 14 to 23; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was 43-year-old Providenza Panno and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and Rosaria "Sara" Maltese.
The factory was located on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch Building, which had been built in 1901. Later renamed the "Brown Building", it still stands at 23–29 Washington Place near Washington Square Park, on the New York University (NYU) campus. The building has been designated a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark.
Because the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked - practice at the time to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft - many of the workers could not escape from the burning building and jumped from the high windows. There were no sprinklers in the building. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.Triangle: Remembering the Fire Trailer (HBO - 40 minutes)
From Emmy - winning filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson, this 40-minute documentary recounts the horror of March 25, 1911, when young garment workers perished in the worst industrial accident in New York City history (up until 9/11), triggering widespread reforms and ushering in the birth of modern labor movement. In addition to riveting stories of heart break and courage told by descendants of several of the fire's victims and survivors, the documentary explains how the tragedy occurred in the wake of an earlier strike (initiated by Triangle employees) that unified some 20,000 garment workers, but ended violence and few concessions by labor leaders. The Saturday afternoon fire, in which workers were literally locked inside their workspace by management apparently worried about theft, galvanized the public's outrage against big business and its treatment of employees. It also forced Tammany Hall officials to work with the fledgling International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to enact legislation improving safety, conditions and wages for garment workers -- a trend that climaxed in New Deal reforms twenty years later, and is the foundation of today's labor standards.
YouTube Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbDoBlUPJUgAmerican Experience: Triangle Fire (PBS - 60 minutes)
The fire that tore through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the gruesome culmination of years of unrest in America's most profitable manufacturing industry. Two years earlier, led by a spontaneous walkout in the same factory, twenty thousand garment workers, in the largest women's strike in American history, took to the streets of New York to protest working conditions. They gained the support of both progressives and leading women in New York's high society. But it took the tragedy at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the death of one hundred and forty-eight young women and the ensuing national outrage, to force government action. From producer Jamila Wignot (Walt Whitman, Jesse James, the Massie Affair) comes Triangle Fire (wt), a one-hour film chronicling the tragedy that shook New York and forever changed the relationship between labor and industry in the United States. And it is a relationship that is still in question today as Americans.
YouTube Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YABBwNxgBHw***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83085282382?pwd=avmfVVAHUV1eCnhKXiZj4mHEQs7dWg.1
Meeting ID: 830 8528 2382
Passcode: 775956
Dial by your location
+1 719 359 4580 US***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Washington, DC History & Culture and Texas History & Culture.
Washington, DC History & Culture
/ Washington, DC Embassy Events & Museum Meetups
Experience the history and culture of Washington, DC - and the world!YouTube Previously Recorded Programs:
http://www.Youtube.com/c/WashingtonDCHistoryCultureDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you. Thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/ - Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys: "Love & Mercy" - Film History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
Let's spend an evening honoring the late Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
We invite you to join us for a film screening of “Love & Mercy”, the 2014 biopic on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
The screening will have two parts. Part one, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a historical context of the film, things to look for, accuracy, etc. Part two will be a full screening of the film.
During the screening there will be an opportunity to discuss the film with other participants via Zoom.***
Love & Mercy is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Bill Pohlad about the Beach Boys' co-founder and leader Brian Wilson and his struggles with mental illness during the 1960s and 1980s. It stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and middle-aged Wilson, respectively, with Elizabeth Banks as his second wife Melinda Ledbetter and Paul Giamatti as his psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy. The title comes from Wilson's 1988 song of the same name.
The film alternates between Wilson's production of the album Pet Sounds (1966) and his treatment under Landy's 24-hour therapy program in the late 1980s. Wilson called the film "very factual", albeit containing parts that "weren't actually as factual". He had little involvement with its making, although Ledbetter was relied upon for the 1980s portions. The cast and crew maintained that nothing in the film was a "Hollywood" embellishment and that everything was intended to be as truthful as possible. Conversely, Landy's son Evan felt that his father was unfairly portrayed. Ledbetter said that Landy's treatment of Wilson "was even worse" than the film portrays.Film Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lioWzrpCtGQ***
Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – c. June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, vocal layering, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson was also known for his versatile vocal range. He faced lifelong struggles with mental illness.
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. They drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound. Under Brian's direction, they often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.
The Beach Boys formed as a garage band centered on Brian's songwriting and managed by the Wilsons' father, Murry. In 1963, the band enjoyed their first national hit with "Surfin' U.S.A.", beginning a string of top-ten singles that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, dubbed the "California sound". They were one of the few American rock bands to sustain their commercial standing during the British Invasion. Starting with 1965's The Beach Boys Today!, they abandoned beachgoing themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and "Good Vibrations" single raised the group's prestige as rock innovators; both are now considered to be among the greatest and most influential works in popular music history.
The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. They helped legitimize popular music as a recognized art form and influenced the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia, power pop, progressive rock, punk, alternative, and lo-fi. Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the US Top 40 (the most by an American band), with four topping the Billboard Hot 100. In 2004, they were ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists of all time. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81764605670?pwd=NmxDYThSSDh6QzdkUXJjZTBzelBaQT09
Meeting ID: 817 6460 5670
Passcode: 482534
Dial by your location
• +1 253 205 0468 US***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Washington, DC History & Culture and Texas History & Culture.
Washington, DC History & Culture
/ Washington, DC Embassy Events & Museum Meetups
Experience the history and culture of Washington, DC - and the world!YouTube Previously Recorded Programs:
http://www.Youtube.com/c/WashingtonDCHistoryCultureDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you. Thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/ - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun - Art and Film History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
Bonjour!
"Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun:
At 15 she was painting the aristocracy, in her 20s she was the favoured painter of Marie-Antoinette, and by her 30s she was fleeing the French Revolution."Join us for an educational and entertaining look into the inspiring life and amazing career of French artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.
Part one of our program will be an approximate 30-minute overview lecture of the artist including a review of her most noteworthy paintings.
Part two of our programme will be a full screening of the excellent hour-and-fifty docudrama "The Fabulous Life of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (aka "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Portraitist of Marie-Antoinette").
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842), also known as Madame Le Brun, was a prominent French portrait painter of the late 18th century.
Her artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo with elements of an adopted Neoclassical style. Her subject matter and color palette can be classified as Rococo, but her style is aligned with the emergence of Neoclassicism. Vigée Le Brun created a name for herself in Ancien Régime society by serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette. She enjoyed the patronage of European aristocrats, actors, and writers, and was elected to art academies in ten cities.
Vigée Le Brun created some 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to many works in private collections, her paintings are owned by major museums, such as the Louvre, Hermitage Museum, National Gallery in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and many other collections in continental Europe and the United States.***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87970768403?pwd=OTBWRHMwTWVzcFhPckt0c3FhekRrUT09
Meeting ID: 879 7076 8403
Passcode: 053792
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,87970768403#,,,,*053792# US
Dial by your location
• +1 646 931 3860 US
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpmid1hRf
Connecting a few minutes early is recommended.
When all else fails please read and follow the directions. : )***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Washington, DC History & Culture and Texas History & Culture.
Washington, DC History & Culture / Washington, DC Embassy Events & Museum Meetups
Experience the history and culture of Washington, DC - and the world!YouTube Previously Recorded Programs:
http://www.Youtube.com/c/WashingtonDCHistoryCultureDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you. Thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/ - Frederic Remington Film - Art History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
Frederic Remington Film - Art History Livestream
&
Frederic Remington Lecture - Art History LivestreamWe invite you to a special two-part art history program on the life and career of Frederic Remington, and the art of the American West.
Part 1, on Friday, September 5, will be a screening of the film “Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days”.
Part 2, on Saturday, September 6, will be an art history lecture on the life and artistic career of Frederic Remington.Frederic Remington Lecture - YouTube Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNLoaUt1JfgFrederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days
Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days is a 1991 documentary film of American Western artist Frederic Remington made for the PBS series American Masters. It was produced and directed by Tom Neff and written by Neff and Louise LeQuire. Actor Gregory Peck narrated the film and Ned Beatty was the voice of Remington when reading his correspondence.
The documentary was produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; NHK Corporation (Japan); and Polaris Entertainment, Nashville, Tennessee. It was the first documentary to be filmed in High Definition Television (HDTV), but at the time it was years away from high-definition television broadcasting.
Film Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUnO8lfPSOkFrederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 - December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, American Indians, and the US Cavalry.
Remington was one of the first American artists to illustrate the true gait of the horse in motion (along with Thomas Eakins), as validated by the famous sequential photographs of Eadweard Muybridge.
Also, noteworthy was Remington's invention of "cowboy" sculpture. From his inaugural piece, The Broncho Buster (1895), he created an art form which is still very popular among collectors of Western art. He has been called the "Father of Cowboy Sculpture".***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87970768403?pwd=OTBWRHMwTWVzcFhPckt0c3FhekRrUT09
Meeting ID: 879 7076 8403
Passcode: 053792
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,87970768403#,,,,*053792# US
Dial by your location
• +1 646 931 3860 US
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpmid1hRf
Connecting a few minutes early is recommended.
When all else fails please read and follow the directions. : )***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Washington, DC History & Culture and Texas History & Culture.
Washington, DC History & Culture / Washington, DC Embassy Events & Museum Meetups
Experience the history and culture of Washington, DC - and the world!YouTube Previously Recorded Programs:
http://www.Youtube.com/c/WashingtonDCHistoryCultureDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you. Thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/