Lectures

The Center hosts individual talks, as well as talks in the lecture series listed below.

Past Events

Upcoming Events

  • 5 Oct

    40th Anniversary Celebration of the Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies

    Monday, October 5, 2026
    4:00 pm PDT – 6:00 pm PDT
    UCLA Royce Hall, Room 314
    10745 Dickson Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90095

    Join us in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the UCLA Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies, the nation’s first research center for early modern studies. Founded in 1985, the Center provides a forum for the discussion of central issues in the field of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century studies, and organizes a wide range of academic and cultural programs. Additionally, the Center...

  • 28 Oct

    Halloween Magic Lantern Show! – Showing 1

    Wednesday, October 28, 2026
    5:00 pm PDT – 6:00 pm PDT
    UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
    2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, California 90018

    Presented by The American Magic Lantern Theater Travel back in time with the boisterous fun of America’s only Halloween magic lantern show. An authentic 1890s visual extravaganza projected on a full-sized screen—the kind of show that led to the movies!  Halloween stories like Poe’s The Raven, spooky animated comedy, spiritualist slides of the dead visiting the living—all dramatized on-screen by...

  • 28 Oct

    Halloween Magic Lantern Show! – Showing 2

    Wednesday, October 28, 2026
    7:00 pm PDT – 8:00 pm PDT
    UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
    2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, California 90018

    Presented by The American Magic Lantern Theater Travel back in time with the boisterous fun of America’s only Halloween magic lantern show. An authentic 1890s visual extravaganza projected on a full-sized screen—the kind of show that led to the movies!  Halloween stories like Poe’s The Raven, spooky animated comedy, spiritualist slides of the dead visiting the living—all dramatized on-screen by...

  • 2 Nov

    “Through the Magic Door”: Stories from the Private Library of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Monday, November 2, 2026
    4:00 pm PST – 5:30 pm PST
    UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library & via Livestream
    2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, CA 90018

    Lecture by Dr. William Zachs, Director, Blackie House Library and Museum Nearly a decade ago the descendants of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) transferred a substantial part of the author's private library to Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh, the city of his birth. Each of the 400 volumes tells a unique story of the writer who not only...

  • 5 Nov

    “Odious! In Woollen!”: Blank Precedents and the London Stationers, 1690-1830

    Thursday, November 5, 2026
    4:00 pm PST – 5:30 pm PST
    UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library & via Livestream
    2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, CA 90018

    Twenty-First Kenneth Karmiole Lecture on the History of the Book Trade Lecture by Dennis Duncan, Associate Professor, University College London This paper begins with a collection of four dozen Burying in Woollen affidavits from the village of Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, dating from the first decade of the eighteenth century to the last. Each affidavit testifies to a burial in...

  • 25 Feb

    21st Century Book Collecting

    Thursday, February 25, 2027
    4:00 pm PST – 6:00 pm PST
    UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
    2520 Cimarron Street, Los Angeles, California 90018

    Spencer W Stuart, Collections Advisor Every other year, Southern California hosts one of the largest and most important opportunities to see and buy rare books, manuscripts, ephemera, prints and maps on the West Coast. The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America’s International Book Fair takes place over three days with scores of dealers from around the world. For first time attendees,...