This virtual lecture with Alexandra Kirtley is an encore of her presentation from the 2025 Orlando Ridout V Memorial Lecture, presented in partnership by Historic Annapolis and the Maryland Historical Trust.

The trade and exchange of raw materials, manufactured goods, skilled artisans, and elite/merchant class families in the late colonial and early national periods inextricably linked Maryland and Philadelphia. In this richly illustrated lecture, the connections and shared history of Maryland and Philadelphia will be presented through surviving architecture, paintings, furniture, ceramics, and more by Philadelphia Art Museum curator Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, herself a proud Marylander.

Historic Annapolis and the Maryland Historical Trust are pleased to present the Orlando Ridout V Memorial Lecture Series free of charge, but we invite you to add a donation when you register. Your gift supports the continuation of this scholarly lecture series that honors Orlando’s legacy and commitment to rigorous research and inspired instruction. Thank you!

Advance registration required; registration closes on half-hour prior to lecture.

Can’t watch live? All lectures will be recorded. Please register and you’ll receive the link to watch the recording after the event.

Cost: FREE

This lecture will be offered virtually by Zoom. Upon registration, you will be sent the link for the video conference to join on the evening of the lecture. If you do not receive your confirmation email after you register, please check your Spam folder, or email Cara Garside at cara.garside@annapolis.org. To learn more about Zoom and to download the app to your computer, visit the Zoom website.

About Our Presenter: A native of Baltimore, Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley graduated from Hamilton College with honors in the history of art and history and received an M.A. from the University of Delaware (Winterthur Program). She has completed post-graduate courses of study in the history of art in Italy, France, and throughout Great Britain. Alexandra has been a curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Art Museum (PAM) since 2001.

Mrs. Kirtley has orchestrated acquisitions for the PAM through major gifts and purchases and in addition to multiple smaller exhibitions, curated the retrospective “Colonial Philadelphia Porcelain: The Art of Bonnin & Morris” in 2008 and the groundbreaking “Classical Splendor: Painted Furniture for a Grand Philadelphia House” (with conservator Peggy Olley) in 2016. She was co-curator of the re-located, reinstalled, and reinterpreted galleries of early American art that opened to much fanfare and critical acclaim in May 2021. Presently, she is co-curating the PAM’s new installation of its galleries of American art from 1850 to 1960 and the special exhibition that will accompany it, “A Nation of Artists,” which will open on April 12, 2026.

A frequent presenter at scholarly conferences and symposia and a frequent author in multiple publications, Alexandra is “known for her innovative art historical approach” to decorative arts. Her most recent standalone publication, American Furniture 1650-1840: Highlights from the Philadelphia Art Museum (2020; 2nd printing, 2021) was the first-ever catalogue of the PAM’s preeminent collection of early American furniture; then-director Timothy Rub described the catalogue as “a daunting undertaking.” For 2025, she has major essays in three forthcoming volumes: Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence (T. Gatson, T. Momon, and W. Strollo, eds.); American Classical Furniture, 1810-1840: Regional Identities in the Schrimsher Collection (K. Schrimsher and M. Thurlow, eds.); and The Wonder of Wood: Marquetry and Inlay in Europe and America, 1500-1900 (B. Jobe, S. Latta, and A. Kirtley, eds).

Alexandra has been an appointee of the United States Senate’s Commission on Art since 2003. She serves on the boards of the Decorative Arts Trust (officer), The Andalusia Foundation (which oversees the Biddle family’s Delaware River estate), and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. She is a past board member of the Delaware Historical Society and vestry member at Christ Church, Christiana Hundred.

The information contained in the HA Virtual Lecture series represents the historical research, views and opinions of the lecture presenter and may not represent the views or opinions of Historic Annapolis, Inc.