The B. R. Baumgardt Lectures

              Figure

The
B. R. Baumgardt Lectures
1918-1919
For additional information address:
Mr. Oscar Howard, Secretary,
626 West 30th St., Los Angeles, Cal.



Steps in the History of Human Progress

Restoration of the Acropolis of Ancient Athens, the civic art center which has done more for art, literature, history, than any other spot on earth.



Dante's undying love for Beatrice, which began at the tender age of nine, became the fountain of his poetical inspiration.  The history of literature can never be written with Dante left out.


WHOEVER has carefully and critically surveyed the intellectual progress of man, his transformation from a savage into a rational, reasoning human being, must have observed that, from the dawn of the civilization in Ancient Egypt to the wonderful achievements in modern times, the advance has not been made in a secular manner, but rather in accord with the rhythmic law of periodicity.  There have been brilliant epochs, times when the human mind has crystallized, followed by periods of inactivity and even retrogression.

History repeats itself.  The trend of modern thought is but a repetition on a grander scale of the thoughts and activities of the past.  But what an advance from the revolving steam-engine of Hero two thousand years ago to the ten - thousand horsepower generator of today; from the geometry of Euclid to the transcendent mathematics of Newton; from Galileo's little two-inch telescope to the Mount Wilson giant reflector, 90,000 times more powerful than the human eye; from the triremes of ancient Rome to the modern steamship; from the courier on horseback to the Santa Fe De Luxe train moving at the rate of 105 miles an hour; from the amber electricity of Democritus to the electric telegraph and telephone.


Artists of the Renaissance in the Court of the Vatican.  With their patron Julius II, are gathered Raphael, Leonardo, Cellini, Michelangelo, Vasari and others.





Crucified Russia

Moscow, Moscow, the Jewel of the Tsars.


THE day that Riga fell Russia went down and out.  This was not so much due to the Bolsheviki as to Kerensky, the dreamer, who ruined the discipline of the army.  When the Bolsheviki came into power the enlisted men were choosing their officers whom they were not required to salute.  Soldiers committees controlled the regiments.  But Kerensky appealed to the popular imagination.  Tolstoy had made a famous prophesy that some day a young Russian student would rise to become the world's next Napoleon—and, today, what is the result?  Russia is beset with enemies from within and without—landowners who have lost their all through the revolution; paid German agitators, who through their poisonous propaganda have reduced the land to extreme anarchy; escaped criminals and returned Siberian exiles, whom the accumulated wrongs of half a century have driven into a frenzy of anarchistic revolt.  But by far the greatest enemy is the appalling ignorance of the tremendous body of working men and soldiers, with their nebulous notion of democracy; who have been taught by their leaders that freedom means a debauch of idleness and tyranny over their old masters.  Such is today the outcome of Bolsheviki misrule.  There are, however, rush lights on the horizon—harbingers of another Russia to come.  The outstanding facts are that Russia has passed through a mighty revolution, has passed from autocracy to democracy, such as it is.  For the first time

The Return of the Exile from Siberia by Repm
 in their history the people enjoy religious liberty and are permitted to think.  In time they will be purged of their poison and wakened from their nightmare.  Then will come a stable civil government with all its blessings, free schools, equality of sexes, equitable distribution of land and development of the well-night infinite resources.  It will mean much to the world.  No wonder that President Wilson affirms that he is still a friend of Russia, and asks us to be patient with the new Russian democracy which has not yet found itself.



The Vatican Palace
Its History, Art Treasures and Gardens

Figure


THE Vatican has been the residence of the popes since their return from Avignon in 1376, and from humble beginnings it has become one of the most important palaces in the world.  Though it is said to contain some 11,000 apartments, halls and rooms, but a small part is set aside for the papal residence and court.  By far the greater number of the apartments are filled with treasures of art of incalculable value.  After passing the gaily colored Swiss Guards, we ascend the Scala Pia, Bramante's celebrated stairs and enter the Chapel of Nicholas V with Fra Angelica's exquisite frescoes; then the Pauline Chapel, with some of Michelangelo's titanic art.  It is, however, in the Sistine Chapel that we find the apotheosis of his work, his Last Judgment, Prophets' Old Testament subjects.  With the thought in mind that his patron, the fiery Pope Julius II had found something kindred in the self-willed genius of Michelangelo, we turn to the Borgia Apartments, forever associated with the sinister memories of Alexander VI, Caesare and Lucrezia, but also with the glorious art of Pinturicchio.  Longest of all, however, do we dwell in the halls and rooms decorated by the most beloved of all painters, Raphael.  The frescoes and paintings by Raphael in the Vatican gave birth to a new era in art and new triumphs for the human mind.  Then there is The Museum of Sculpture, including the Gallery of Statues, The Rotunda, The Belvedere Octagon, The Hall of Chiaramonti, The Braccio Nuovo, all literally teeming with the treasures of ancient Greek sculpture.  And the Vatican Library—though not a library in the sense of a collection of books, but rather a collection of manuscripts—is of its kind without a rival on earth.  Last, but not of least interest, are the Vatican Gardens.  Though by most visitors they are passed over and forgotten, they still bear many traces of their former beauty and greatness.


The celebrated Vatican Sistine Chapel boy Choir






Recent photographs of the Planet Mars.

An Evening with the Stars
An Introduction to the Study of the Heavens
WHEN Laplace more than a century ago published his epoch-making System of the Universe it seemed the last word on the science of the stars.  Yet what un-dreamed-of discoveries have since been made and are being made today.  Men of science are more eager than ever to penetrate the arcana of the unknown.  Actuated by a restless and unsatisfied spirit, haunted by the sense of an infinite nescience, they press fearlessly on in search of truth.

The purpose of this lecture is to bring into relief the recent achievements in celestial photography, and in a popular and understandable way interpret their bearing on some of the greatest problems that have yet engaged the attention of thinking men.  With

Photograph of Copernicus, one of the large craters on the Moon.  It has a cluster of peaks in the center.  Copernicus is about seventy-five miles in diameter.  With a modern telescope this remarkable object is brought within eighty miles of the observer.


A remarkable combination photograph of a section of the sun, showing a cloud of calcium over a sunspot and suspended under gigantic flames of incandescent gases.
 With this special purpose in view repeated visits have been made to the leading observatories of the United States and Europe, resulting finally in a collection of celestial views that has no equal on earth.  When presented to an audience the result is almost stunning.  In some of these views, taken with the greatest telescopes in existence, the moon is brought within eighty miles of the audience.  What greater privilege than in this way to travel on the surface of our satellite in the midst of strange scenes that are ever new.  In the sterility and death there beheld, the thoughtful mind reads a signal prophecy of the fate that in the end may overtake our own earth.

And what about the planet Mars!  What about the far-famed canals and the hypothetical race of inhabitants of this island in space.  Do they exist, or do they belong to the realms of fiction?  The latest photographic revelations as well as the opinions of those who are best in position to know are presented in this lecture and the audience is left to draw its own conclusions.

But it is in disclosing the triumphs of the celestial photography of the starry universe that the subject becomes sublime.  Suns and worlds are weighed in the balance.  Giant nebulæ, colossal clouds of incandescent matter without form and void, situated on the confines of the universe, disclose to the discerning eye the very processes of creation.  End there is none.  For with each increase in telescopic power there rise as in a phantasmagoria colonies upon colonies of suns and worlds; until at last the mind reels and falls upon itself.  It is a vision of infinity, in the midst of

Barnard's extraordinary photograph of one of the richest parts of the Milky Way, where the stars are so numerous that they blend their light into a luminous haze.  Yet each individual star is a sun and no doubt surrounded by worlds.  The distance of the nearest star is 25,000,000,000,000 of miles.
 which stands ever forth, dominating all, the supremacy of law in the universe.

Such are some of the astounding revelations of this lecture, the mission of which is to enable the audience to develop in speculative power, as well as to give more correct views of the imposing grandeur and majesty of the starry universe and a faint idea of the infinite scale of its development.

[At the close of one of Sir David Gill's lectures on astronomy, Sir William Thompson, who was present, with unaffected enthusiasm declared that he had been taken on a journey far more wonderful than that of Aladdin on the enchanted carpet; that he had been carried not only to the remotest star, billions of miles away, but that on the wings of science he had been permitted to circumnavigate the universe, and had then been brought safely back to the earth.  And, the best of it all was that it was true.]


Dark rifts or lanes in the Milky Way, due either to absence of stars or to opaque matter intervening between us and the stellar background.  Are we here approaching the confines of the universe?  This has been suspected, but who is bold enough to indicate limits to the archipeligo of the starry system?  The nebulae in this photograph are so faint that they cannot be seen with the and of the most powerful telescope.  But they do manifest themselves on the photographic plate.




California
The Switzerland and Italy of America

Figure



Figure


CALIFORNIA is irresistible—a land that casts a spell and conjures before the mind's eye pictures of loveliness, beauty and mystery—a land of sweet scents and soft airs, gorgeous song-birds and amethystine hills fading in the distance.  In retrospect is the enchantment of by-gone Spanish days, visions of senoritas and caballeros, tinkling guitars and the gay fandango, grayhaired monks with cross and cowl, and the echoes of the Angelus.

California is the second largest state in the Union, ranking first m the production of gold, quicksilver, oil prunes, raisins and citrus fruits; has natural resources capable of supplying the needs of an empire.  Lofty mountain ranges, extensive plains, giant forests, a balmy but bracing climate, unrivaled hydraulic power, sublime scenery, cities of phenomenal growth, beautiful parks and boulevards, ideal country homes, a singularly unique fauna and a flora of unmatched splendor—these are some of the characteristics of the Golden State, stretching for 700 miles along the shores of the Pacific Ocean, inspiring to the young, stimulating to those in middle life, and restful to persons of advanced years seeking quiet and peace.

The great central valley of California, guarded by the Sierras on the east, rising into peaks from 10,000 to 14,500 feet in height, and the diversified Coast Range on the west, extending from the foot of Mount Shasta on the north through six degrees of latitude to the Tehachapi rim on the south, contains 10,000,000 acres of splendid farming and fruit land, drained from opposite ends by two great rivers which unite at the capacious Bay of San Francisco.  It is the one great valley of the world that has an immense, unbroken area, a fertile soil, a superior climate, an abundance of water, and a sparse population—ample room and strong attractions for millions of settlers.

The two leading cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, each with half a million inhabitants, have all the attractions, culture and educational facilities of prominent business and art centers in the East and Europe, and annually attract from 60,000 to 100,000 tourists and travelers from the States beyond the mountains and from foreign countries.  California is surely the land of abundant promise.




The Historic Background of the Great War

A German Conception of War.  The War, by Anton Stuck.



A Russian Conception of War.  War Against War, by Verestchagin


GERMANY'S victory over France in 1871, the consequent billion-dollar indemnity, as well as the cession by France of her two richest provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, gave to Germany a vast impetus to material expansion.  Her population increased from 41,000,000 to 67,000,000.  Her factories in 1913 numbered 300,000.  Without colonies, where were the raw products to come from to keep the six million factory hands going?  In the same year the output of steel was one-third of that of the whole world.  In 1871 it was but 1,400,000 tons.  Her foreign trade, policed by the third largest navy in the world, had reached the staggering sum of $5,000,000,000.  All this produced in the German people an intensely violent, and even chauvinistic national consciousness, a most sinister spirit, which, for selfish reasons, was fanned by the Prussian Junkers.  The Germans felt suddenly that they had been divinely appointed to Germanize the rest of the world, by forcing upon it German Kultur, based upon German military autocracy.  So was evolved the German World Policy, pointing to the establishment of a world empire with Germany at the head.  All of which was to be carried out by the German army, the child of German militarism.  Recognizing that it was the Prussian sword that had eventually brought unity to Germany, the Teutons under Prussian tutelage gave themselves over heart and soul to Prussian militarism, and the development of a gigantic army, whose end it was to render Germany supreme in Europe, and, indeed, in the whole world.  No wonder the world looked askance.  No wonder that every civilized nation on earth is today at war with Germany.  Even our own peace-loving United States is at war with Germany.  Why do we fight?  Because we have been attacked and our citizens have been murdered on the high seas.  Because we have been belied, slandered and betrayed; our land infested with German spies and drenched with poisonous propaganda.  Because self-government is in danger, and democracy, the rock foundation of our beloved institutions, is at stake.  We fight Germany today for all these reasons.  Any self-respecting, independent nation would be at war under similar provocations.  It is a war to a finish between autocracy and democracy.


Napoleon III and Bismarck on the morning after Sedan





The Grand Canyon
Including a Visit to Mammoth Cave, Ky.  An Introduction to the Story of the Earth
WHEN the most unimaginative person stands for the first time upon the brink of that mile-deep chasm—the Grand Canyon of the Colorado—he is overwhelmed with the awful majesty of the scene.  The riven earth has opened before his astonished gaze and seems to be revealing some of its profoundest cosmic secrets.  It is a scene without a rival on earth.


Figure


Perhaps a million years ago it was a great inland sea, occupying the whole extent of the Utah Basin, covering an area of many thousand square miles, and confined at its southwestern border by a mountain range 6,000 feet high.  When a thin stream finds its way through a Holland dyke or a Mississippi levee, the imprisoned waters rush through the small opening with such impetuous velocity that they tear out a channel which grows ever larger and larger till a mighty river, broad and deep, pours with tremendous energy through the former insignificant crevice, defying all obstacles, melting away solid earth and eroding the granite rocks till the pressure from behind is relieved by a lowering of the waters to a new level and peace has been re-established.

Thus the Colorado River, with tremendous energy, excavated this titanic canyon through the solid geological formations that had been building up their strata for five or ten million years, exposing their beautiful many-colored deposits, and carving its declivitous sides into a myriad fantastic shapes—Gothic temples, Herculean pillars, geometrical figures, Sphinx-like outlines and impressive images.

The swift river winds its mazy way more than a mile below, resembling a silver thread between its almost invisible green sedgy banks.  It is a scene unlike any other on the globe.  Once impressed upon the tablets of the brain, it remains forever ineffaceable in the halls of memory—a scene that has inspired many poetic expressions:

A whole chaotic under-world, just emptied of primeval floods and waiting for a new creative word; a boding, terrible thing, unflinchingly real, yet spectral as a dream, eluding all sense of perspective or dimension, outstretching the faculty of measurement, overlapping the confines of definite apprehension.  The beholder is overwhelmed by the ensemble of a stupendous panorama a thousand square miles in extent, that lies wholly beneath the eye, as if he stood upon a mountain peak instead of the brink of a fearful chasm in the plateau whose opposite shore is thirteen miles away.—Higgins.



The B. R. Baumgardt Lectures
Arranged in Courses of Historic Sequence

A
Lectures on Special Subjects

*The Historie Background of the War
*Municipal and Civic Art Centers; Ancient and Modern
*Romance of Human Civilization
The Trend of Modern Science and Thought
Poetic Expression of Science and Philosophy
A Plea for Religious Toleration
The Limits of Human Knowledge

B
Descriptive Geography (Series 1)

*The Fjords of Norway
*Historical Tour through Germany
*Switzerland and the Alps
*Castles and Legends of the Rhine
*Sweden and the Swedes
*Petrograd and Moscow

C
Descriptive Geography (Series 2)

*The Spell of Greece
*Spain and the Alhambra
*France and the French People
*Austria and Hungary
*California and the Sierras
*The Grand Canyon of the Colorado

D
Lectures on Italy

*Ancient, Medieval and Modern Rome
*Florence in the Days of the Medici
*Venice, the City of Golden Dreams
*The Italian Lakes and Riviera
*Naples and the Shores of Paradise
*Pompeii, the City of the Dead
*The Vatican Palace and Art Treasures

E
Steps in the History of Human Progress (Series 1)

The Dawn of Civilization in Egypt
The Golden Age of Pericles
Life, Art and Thought in Ancient Greece
Rome and the Birth of the Political Instinct
Moorish Civilization

F
Steps in the History of Human Progress (Series 2)

The Renaissance
The Age of Shakespeare and Newton
Modern Times; the Age of Reason
America's Part in Human Progress
The Trend of Modern Thought

G
Representative Men of Genius

*The Genius of Shakespeare
*George Washington
*Abraham Lincoln
*Napoleon Bonaparte
*Pericles, Greatest of Statesmen
*Life and Aims of Richard Wagner

H
The War Capitals of Europe

*Berlin and Modern Germany
*Paris, the Historic City
*Vienna, the Imperial City
*Petrograd and Moscow
*London, the World's Metropolis
*Rome, the Eternal City


Note!  Asterisk indicates that lecture is illustrated with lantern views




Engagements and Re-engagements


National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.
8 times


Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass
21 times


League for Political Education, New York City
17 times


Belasco Theater, Washington, D. C.
19 times


Public Lectures, San Francisco
34 times


Public Lectures, Los Angeles, Cal.
42 times


American Geographical Society, New York City
3 times


Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y.
39 times


University Extension, Society, Philadelphia
40 times


Columbia University, Extension, New York City
15 times


American Institute, New York City
22 times


Maine Mechanics' Institute, Portland, Me.
11 times


Buffalo Historical Society, Buffalo, N. Y.
5 times


Academy of Science and Art, Pittsburgh, Pa.
17 times


Rosenberg Library Course, Galveston, Texas
16 times


Goodwyn Institute, Memphis, Tenn.
12 times


Drexel Institute, Philadelphia
6 times


The Astronomical Society, Cincinnati
5 times


Academy of Sciences, Los Angeles
19 times


Teachers' Institute, San Francisco
14 times


Teachers' Institute, Seattle, Wash.
8 times


Educational Association, Portland, Ore.
13 times


Library Lecture Course, Easton, Pa.
9 times


The Scottish Rite Lectures, Los Angeles
34 times


The City Club
Boston, Mass.


University Club, Pittsburgh, Pa.
4 times


Buffalo Club, Buffalo, N. Y.
5 times


Tuesday Club, Sacramento, Cal.
15 times


National Arts Club, New York City
twice


Union League Club
New York City


The Cornell Club, New York City
twice


The McDowell Club, New York City
twice


University Club, Erie, Pa.
twice


University Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
10 times


Salmagundi Club, New York City
twice


National Press Club
Washington, D. C.


Ebell Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
18 times


Friday Morning Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
12 times


The Brooks Club, New Bedford, Mass.
8 times


The Detroit Club, Detroit, Mich.
twice


Sunday Evening Club, Englewood, Chicago
4 times


The Thacher School, Nordhoff, Cal.
23 times


Camera Club, San Francisco
7 times


U. S. Naval Academy
Annapolis, Md.


Carnegie Hall, New York City
17 times


University of Chicago, Extension
24 times


U. S. Naval Base, Norfolk, Virginia
4 times


American Universities Society, St. Louis and Denver
twice


Vassar Brothers Institute, Poughkeepsie, New York
4 times


Ford Hall Lectures,
Boston


Groton School
Groton, Mass.


St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H.
5 times


St. Mark's School, Southboro, Mass.
5 times


Stanford University
California


Phillips Academy
Andover, Mass.


Pomfret School, Pomfret, Conn.
13 times


Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, N. J.
4 times





B. R. BAUMGARDT, (From Who's Who)
Lecturer, Scientist and Explorer
Born Liverpool, England, May 19, 1862
of English and Swedish extraction.  Educated in Sweden; graduate of Strengnas College.  Special studies in history, astronomy and mathematics.  Secretary Oregon Aeademy of Sciences 1892; President S. California Academy of Sciences 1901-1905; Chairman Astronomical and Mathematical Section 1895-1905.  Exteusive traveler and explorer.  Has private astronomical observatory with four and one-half inch telescope.  Staff lecturer: Brooklyn Institute, American Institute of New York, League for Political Education of New York, Academy of Sciences and Arts of Pittsburgh, National Geographic Society of Washington, Institute of Arts and Licences of Columbia University. Goodwyn Institute, Memphis Tennessee.  Clubs: Transportation Club, New York City; Explorer's Club of America, New York City; Hon. Member University Club, Los Angeles; Hon. Member Gamut Club of Los Angeles; Hon. Member California Camera Club, San Francisco; Hon. Member S. California Academy of Sciences; Hon. Member Astronomical society of Los Angeles.


Figure




A Few Recent Opinions
National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.

On behalf of the National Geographic Society, permit me to express to you our deepest appreciation of your really wonderful lecture The Romance of Human Civilization, we have heard from all sides most glowing comments and admiration of the address and your remarkable pictures.  You are to be congratulated on this brilliant achievement.—Gillbert H. Grosvenor, Director.


Washington, D. C. “The Washington Herald”
In conveying to his audiences the inspiration he himself has found in the study of the heavens and the amazing triumphs of human science, Mr. Baumgardt has achieved something more than success; he has made of his lecture an actual work of art.  He so cunningly marshals facts and plays so skillfully on the minds and sentiments of his hearers, that the effect is almost stunning.  It seems as if he had left no room for improvement.—The Herald.


Columbia University Bulletin, New York City
Born in England, educated in Sweden, Mr. Baumgardt has traveled extensively in scientific pursuits.  His remarkable ability as a lecturer, combined with an interesting fund of information, keeps him in continual demand by educational institutions, associations and clubs, both in this country and abroad.

United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.

Mr. Baumgardt, with a national platform reputation and an almost unlimited range of subjects, has something to say and knows how to say it.  He appeals to his audiences, critical or popular, as few lecturers do.—E. W. Scott, Chaplain, U.S.N.


Boston, Mass., “The Boston Herald”
The twenty-third and last of Mr. Baumgardt's highly interesting lectures in Boston was by far the most remarkable in the series.  It was a discourse on Triumphs in Celestial Photography.  Such an agregation of celestial views has never been witnessed in Boston before.  But, no matter how wonderful were the views, the discourse which accompanied them was even more interesting.


Washington, D. C. “Star”
It would seem a difficult task to create a new impression in the lecture field, yet this is precisely what Mr. Baumgardt has done by adding to the elements of instruction and entertainment the charm of poetic interpretation.  His enthusiasm is contagious, his personality peculiarly attractive, and his delivery modulated to a nicety, which shows him to be the possessor of histrionic abilities.  He is a man of the rarest intellectual attainments.


“The Graphic”
Mr. Baumgardt impresses with strong personal magnetism.  He holds and interests his audience with a vitality and intensity of style, which never flags for a moment.  He takes a grip on his audience on the instant.  You cannot rid yourself of the man and his fascination, try as you would.

The League for Political Education, New York City

Mr. B. R. Baumgardt, as a result of lecturing once before the League for Political Education, was engaged for three lectures last season.  These were so successful that the engagement was extended to two additional lectures, and next season seven lectures by him are to be included in our program.  This is practical testimony as to the value of his work as we have found it.  Mr. Baumgardt is thoroughly equipped as a scholar.  He has the rare gift of imaginative and magnetic appeal, so that he wins and holds the attention of an audience with remarkable success.  I regard him as one of the most useful and desirable lecturers now available.—Robert Erskine Ely, Director.

Buffalo Historical Society, Buffalo, N. Y.

Mr. Baumgardt is without a peer in his field.  His intense personality fairly electrifies his audience.  He is artistic scholarly—in short, a genius.—Bulletin of the Buffalo Historical Society.

Memphis, Tenn., The Goodwyn Institute

We strive to present only lecturers who are fully competent to treat their subjccts, who speak with authority, and possess the art of popular and effective delivery.  These requisites were met in a most satisfactory way in your three recent lectures.  C. C. Ogilvie, Superintendent.

Vassar Brothers Institute, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

We have been remembering, enjoying and admiring your lecture.  You certainly understand condensation and crosslights.  It is hard to see how you could bring in so much without blurring the effect.—Henry S. White, President.

American Institute, New York City

Mr. Baumgardt is a magnetic, fluent and captivating speaker, interesting alike to old and young.  He has given some twenty lectures for the American Institute, and always with increased satisfaction.—J. W. Bartlett, M. D., Presdent.


Boston, Mass., “The Boston Transcript”
Baumgardt has been termed different, and he certainly is, for, instead of simply labeling his beautiful pictures, he gives most valuable data and information.  His lectures have proved of unusual interest.  In last night's lecture on Athens at Tremont Temple, he seemed fairly to revel in his subject.