In the 1880s, America’s millionaires had money to spend. The acquisition of grand houses with equally grand gardens became their passion. By the turn of the century, and over the next four decades, estate gardens ranging in size from dozens to thousands of acres swept the nation.

Join Levine School of Music lecturer Carl Yaffe as he discusses the role of opera in Catherine the Great's court and provides commentary throughout a performance by Levine faculty artists Jennifer Suess, soprano and Irina Kats, piano. 

Do you want to add something new to liven up your home? Tropical plants can provide a welcome balance to orchid collections, as well as spicing up your average houseplant display. 

Get an intimate look at Hillwood’s gardens with the experts!

Get an intimate look at Hillwood’s gardens with the experts!

Get an intimate look at Hillwood’s gardens with the experts!

Celebrate the best of French short films from 2013! Presented in partnership with the Alliance Française de Washington.

While British painters who painted Catherine the Great during her lifetime occupy a very modest place in history, engravings of the empress made by British masters were on sale either as separate prints or as illustrations in books about her and her Russia.  It was, however, Catherine's misfortune to rule when some of England's greatest caricaturists were at the height of their powers and it was the images (one hesitates to call them likenesses) that they produced that proved the most influential.