Upcoming Events
Work-in-Progress Workshop: Stephen Aron, “The Strange Career of the Frontier”
Saturday, November 21, 2026, 10:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. • By registration only. Space is limited.
Co-sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW).
Bill Deverell (University of Southern California) leads a workshop discussion of a new essay by Stephen Aron, planned as the opening chapter of The Oxford Handbook of the North American West, edited by Louis Warren and Rachel St. John. The essay follows the idea of the frontier as the starting point of western American history: from the thinkers who came before Frederick Jackson Turner, through Theodore Roosevelt’s related but competing view, to the long influence of Turner’s “frontier thesis.” It then considers how the “New Western Historians” tried to move beyond Turner by emphasizing place over process and movement in many directions rather than only from east to west, and it closes by asking why the frontier has endured as a concept alongside newer approaches to the history of the West.
Stephen Aron is the Calvin and Marilyn Gross Director and President and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West and Professor Emeritus at UCLA. A past president of the Western History Association and an elected member of the Society of American Historians, he is the author most recently of The American West: A Very Short Introduction and Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West, both published by Oxford University Press.
The program includes a tour of the San Gabriel Mission at 11:30 a.m., led by Steven Hackel. Registered participants will receive a link to the draft essay on the registration confirmation page.
Past Events
Book Talk: Peter C. Mancall, Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000–1680
Saturday, July 11, 2026, 10:30 a.m.
Co-sponsored by the San Gabriel Valley Humanities Center and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Peter C. Mancall of the University of Southern California discussed his new volume in the Oxford History of the United States series, a sweeping history of North America from the arrival of Norse explorers around the year 1000 to the wave of revolts of the 1670s and 1680s. The book shows how the continent was shaped by the experiences of millions of Indigenous women and men, as well as Europeans and Africans. Through the generosity of the Omohundro Institute, the first 25 registrants received a free copy of the book.
Book Talk: David Igler, All Species of Knowledge: A Voyage of Discovery, Failure, and Natural History in the Pacific Ocean
Saturday, March 28, 2026, 10:30 a.m. — The Center’s inaugural event.
David Igler of the University of California, Irvine, an award-winning historian of the Pacific, discussed his book on the Russian ship Rurik, which sailed in 1815 on a three-year voyage through the Pacific and Arctic oceans in search of the Northwest Passage. Although the expedition never found the passage, its crew devoted themselves to natural history, and Igler traces how their work, and its long afterlife in science, art, and oral tradition, shaped knowledge about the societies and environments they encountered. Illustrated with rare color images made during the voyage, the book explores the daily practice of shipboard science and the many meanings of failure and discovery.
California in the 1770s
A discussion presented as part of LA250, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Host Your Event
The Center welcomes proposals from local organizations whose programs are aligned with the humanities. Our library accommodates up to 40 attendees.
Getting Here
414 South Mission Drive, San Gabriel, CA 91776, across the street from San Gabriel City Hall. Free parking is available.
