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Francis Morrone at Fulton Street Pier

Francis Morrone is available to lecture or to lead private tours. He has lectured or led tours for a wide variety of organizations, companies, schools, and museums.

He is a confident, enthusiastic lecturer who loves to speak to all kinds of audiences. He has spoken successfully at academic conferences and to children's groups. In a typical week, he might teach an architectural history seminar to the associates of a major architectural firm, speak to an Elderhostel group about the history of New York theater, and lecture to a roomful of private-school teachers about the American presidency. See below for a list of topics on which he has delivered successful, crowd-pleasing lectures and walking tours.
To arrange a lecture or tour,
call (718) 344-0715,
or e-mail Francis Morrone.


Here is a list of some of Francis Morrone's clients for private lectures and tours:

Colleges and Universities
  • Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst (Hildesheim)
  • University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
  • Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (Netherlands)
  • National College of Art and Design of Oslo
  • Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts of Stanford University
  • St. Mary's Seminary & University (Baltimore, Md.)
  • Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
  • St. Anselm College (Manchester, N.H.)
  • University of Heidelberg
  • New York Arts Program
  • University of Mississippi
Museums
  • Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Smithsonian Institution)
  • Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst of Bremen
  • Pinakothek der Art Moderne (Munich)
  • Mobile (Ala.) Museum of Art
  • Tucson Museum of Art
  • Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Mass.)
  • National Galleries of Scotland
  • Historic Hudson Valley (Tarrytown, N.Y.)
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Museum of the City of New York
  • New-York Historical Society
  • Cincinnati Art Museum
Private Interest Organizations and Clubs
  • American Institute of Wine and Food
  • Accueil New York (French women's group)
  • Chicago Drama League
  • Pro Musica Tours
  • Harvard Club
  • Homemakers Council of Nassau County (N.Y.)
Professional Organizations and Associations
  • Greater New York Dental Meeting
  • United Federation of Teachers
  • American Institute of Architects
  • Leadership Program of the Central Park Historical Society (private-school teachers' training workshops)
  • Mountbatten Internship Programme
  • Institutional Investors' Institute
  • American College of Real Estate Lawyers
  • American Road and Transportation Builders Association
Secondary Schools
  • Rutgers Preparatory School (Somerset, N.J.)
  • Sacred Heart Academy of Greenwich (Conn.)
  • Lycée Français de New York
  • Bushwick High School (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
College Alumni Associations
  • Duke University Alumni Association
  • Northwestern University Alumni Association
  • Skidmore College Alumni Association
  • Brandeis University National Women's Committee
Preservation Organizations
  • Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund
  • National Trust for Historic Preservation
  • Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
  • Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
  • Community Trust of New York
  • Frank Lloyd Wright Building Foundation
  • Chicago Architecture Foundation
Private Corporations and Firms
  • DaimlerChrysler
  • Tyco/Earth Tech
  • Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corp.
  • Covington Fabrics Corp.
  • Prophet Brand Strategy
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Swiss Re New Markets
  • Berry & Co. Public Relations
  • CB Commercial Real Estate Group
  • Willkie Farr & Gallagher (law firm)
  • Pfizer Pharmaceutical
  • Mayer, Brown & Platt (law firm)
  • SG Cowen Securities Corp.
  • Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
  • Fairchild Publications
Governmental and Civic Organizations
  • New York State Council on the Arts
  • City Parks Foundation (New York, N.Y.)
  • NYC2012
Travel Agencies
  • RMP Travel
  • Group Discount Attractions of Levittown (N.Y.)
  • Thomas Travel of Salt Lake City
  • Boscov's Travel Center, Reading, Penn.
  • Heritage Group Travel of Bath (U.K.)
  • Art Focus au Point of Montreal
Below are topics about which Francis Morrone has given lectures or walking tours. Each is a subject about which he speaks confidently, competently, and entertainingly. Each is also a subject about which he has written for publication, and in many cases taught in a classroom at a college or university.

Some suggested lecture topics:


Neighborhood Histories
  • Greenwich Village
  • Gramercy Park
  • Williamsburg
  • Bay Ridge
  • Brooklyn Heights
  • Park Slope
  • Others
Topics in New York City History
  • Theater in New York
  • The Irish in New York
  • The Italians in New York
  • Bohemian New York
  • The Rockefellers' New York
  • The Vanderbilts' New York
  • The Astors' New York
  • J.P. Morgan, Financier and Collector
  • History of Brooklyn
  • Public Sculpture in New York
  • The Harlem Renaissance
  • Hollywood's New York
  • New York and American Popular Song
Architecture of New York City
  • Colonial and Georgian Architecture of New York
  • Greek Revival and Gothic Revival Architecture in New York
  • Victorian New York
  • Rise of the New York Skyscraper
  • Modern Architecture in New York
  • Survey of New York Architecture
  • Survey of Brooklyn Architecture
  • Beaux-Arts New York
  • Churches and Synagogues of New York
  • Architecture of McKim, Mead & White
  • "St. Patrick's Cathedral and the American Scene"
The American Presidency
  • The Founding Fathers' New York
  • George Washington's New York
  • Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
  • Abraham Lincoln's New York
  • New York's Theodore Roosevelt
  • History of Political Conventions in New York
  • History of the Republican Party
American and English Literature
  • The Life and Works of Edith Wharton
  • The Life and Works of Henry James
  • Walt Whitman's New York
  • The Life of Washington Irving
  • Town and Country in the Novels of Anthony Trollope
  • The Life and Works of Herman Melville
  • Saul Bellow's New York
  • Marianne Moore's Brooklyn
  • History of Literary New York
Architecture and Urbanism
  • The Ideas of Jane Jacobs
  • The Architectural Theory of Geoffrey Scott
  • "Preserving Preservation"
  • Principles of Classical Architecture
  • "Architectural Literacy"


Some suggested topics for walking tours:

Manhattan
  • "The Past and Future of the World Trade Center Site"
  • Grand Central Terminal
  • Times Square
  • Central Park
  • Riverside Park and Riverside Drive
  • Gramercy Park
  • The West Village
  • The East Village
  • The Hudson Yards and the High Line
  • Manhattan's Gold Coast
  • "Gargoyles, Grotesques, Maidens, and Masks: Anonymous Craftsmen and Building Decoration on the Upper West Side"
  • Morningside Heights
  • Chelsea
  • The South Street Seaport
  • Battery Park City
  • Wall Street
  • Churches and Synagogues of New York City
  • Walt Whitman's New York
  • George Washington's New York
  • Washington Irving's New York
  • Edith Wharton's New York
  • Stanford White's New York
  • The New York of Henry James
  • Herman Melville's New York
  • The Rockefellers' New York
  • The Vanderbilts' New York
  • The Astors' New York
  • Murray Hill
  • The Lower East Side and Chinatown
  • "Irish Footsteps in Old New York"
  • Italians in New York
  • Rockefeller Center
  • "Blame It on the Bossa Nova: The Avenue of the Americas in the 1950s and 1960s"
  • East End Avenue and Carl Schurz Park

Brooklyn
  • Brooklyn Heights
  • Fulton Ferry, DUMBO, and Vinegar Hill
  • Park Slope
  • Prospect Park
  • Coney Island 
  • Brighton Beach
  • Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
  • Williamsburg
  • Greenpoint
  • Sheepshead Bay
  • Red Hook
  • Bay Ridge North
  • Bay Ridge South
  • Cobble Hill and the Columbia Street Waterfront District
  • Downtown Brooklyn
  • Sheepshead Bay
  • Gravesend
  • Ocean Parkway
The Bronx
  • The Grand Concourse
Queens
  • Forest Hills
  • Jackson Heights