Lecture: Robert Hulse, M.A., Director, London’s Brunel Museum

Event

Robert Hulse, Director of London's Brunel Museum, will present a lecture at the Linda Hall Library, 5109 Cherry St., Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. The English-Speaking Union, Kansas City Branch is co-sponsoring this free lecture program with the Linda Hall Library. This lecture is part of ESU's Evelyn Wrench Lecture Series.

Americans need little introduction to their favorite architect, but they may not know Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), the Englishman who changed the world. His first project, the oldest tunnel in the London subway, changed the shape of our cities.

His last project, the Great Eastern steamship, changed the pattern of world trade. Everything Brunel did, by land or by sea, he did with flare and showmanship worthy of Frank Lloyd Wright. Both worked beyond the parameters of established practice. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, Brunel was flamboyant as well as prolific. Like him, he was stylish, cutting a figure as a man of fashion, a collector and patron of the arts.

In his lecture, Robert Hulse will introduce us to this extraordinary Victorian Englishman and discuss the remarkable similarities he shares with the 20^th-century American architect, both of whom challenged the way we think about buildings and cities.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel is Britain's most famous engineer. He built the biggest ship in the world three times. He built the fastest railway in the world, a hundred bridges, the first river tunnel, and said 'I wish to be the first engineer and an example to all future ones'. Frank Lloyd Wright designed more than a thousand structures, many of them in Chicago, and many of them award-winning. He introduced a new school of architecture, and when asked his profession, said 'I am the World's Greatest Living Architect'.

Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Where: Linda Hall Library, 5109 Cherry St., Kansas City, Mo.
Admission: This is a free lecture program, open to the public; however, e-tickets are required. E-tickets are limited to four per order.

Parking:
Parking is free in Library parking lots and along the west side of Holmes Street between 51st and 52nd streets. The main entrance to the Library grounds is on Cherry Street. The Linda Hall Library is not affiliated with UMKC. Parking in all UMKC lots is by permit or meter.

Robert Hulse, MA, is Director of London's Brunel Museum, housed in Brunel's original Thames Tunnel engine house and winner of The Queen's Award in 2010. He is co-author of   The Brunels' Tunnel, with a foreword by Michael Palin. Mr. Hulse has worked in education and museums for 20 years. He has taught at London University and City University; lectured at Chiba University, Tokyo; the Royal Institution of Great Britain and Tel Aviv University. Hulse worked with the Greater London Authority to organize the first public walks through the Thames Tunnel in 145 years. He is now working with Brunel Museum Trustees on a new project to build a visitor center in Brunel's Grand Entrance Hall.

About the Linda Hall Library
The Linda Hall Library is the world's foremost independent research library devoted to science, engineering, and technology. A not-for-profit, privately funded institution, the Library is open to the public free of charge. Since 1946, scholars, students, researchers, academic institutions and businesses throughout the Kansas City region, across the nation and around the world have used the Linda Hall Library's collections to learn, investigate, invent, explore and increase knowledge. Hundreds of people of all ages attend the Library's public programs each year to expand their awareness and understanding of science and technology. The Linda Hall Library is a guardian of the collective intellectual heritage with regard to science, technology, and engineering disciplines; a destination for advanced research and scholarship, and a center for public education in the sciences. To learn more, visit www.lindahall.org. 

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