NECC is honored to partner with the White Fund and the Lawrence Public Library to host the White Fund Enlightenment Series, a free series of interactive presentations for the citizens of Lawrence. It’s our hope the people of Lawrence find wisdom, cultural enrichment, and intellectual enhancement by attending and participating in these events.
Upcoming Events
View past events hosted by the White Fund Enlightenment Series.
The White Fund Room
Located in the Louise Haffner Fournier Education Center on NECC’s Lawrence Campus, The White Fund Room is a wonderful space for lectures, readings, and community meetings. The room is adorned with beautiful reproductions of original art owned by The White Fund, with original works housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
The White Fund Paintings & Watercolors
These European and American paintings and watercolors were once owned by the Reverend William E. Wolcott of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Upon Wolcott’s death in 1911, the works of art became the property of the White Fund, a charitable trust. The White Fund placed most of these paintings on deposit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1912; the rest were lent in 1989 and 1994.
View the MFA Boston’s online gallery of the paintings
In 2007, a catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition An Impressionist Legacy: Lawrence’s White Fund Paintings organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy (Andover, MA) and generously supported by The White Fund Inc. Copies are available for viewing at the Lawrence Public Library.
About the White Fund Enlightenment Series
In the 1850’s Daniel Appleton White served as an Essex County Probate judge and a Massachusetts Congressman. His birthplace was a Methuen farm that would eventually become a part of downtown Lawrence and the campus of Northern Essex Community College. At his direction, money from the sale of a portion of that land would endow a “course of lectures delivered annually designed to enlighten the mind and elevate the character.” His chief concern was “for the advancement and success in life” of the young men and women at work in the textile mills.
The first White Fund lecture was delivered in 1864. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Booker T. Washington were among the mid-century luminaries who graced the White Lecture podium at City Hall on Common Street. Charter trustees Charles S. Storrow, Henry K. Oliver, and Nathanial G. White, for whom the Lawrence Public Library was dedicated, enlisted speakers “tending to the moral and intellectual uplift of the inhabitants of Lawrence.” Today the White Fund Trustees continue this tradition through support of the White Fund Enlightenment Series offered in cooperation with Northern Essex. By Judge White’s design, these presentations are free to the public.
The views expressed in the White Fund Enlightenment Series presentations are the views of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Northern Essex Community College or of The White Fund.
More Information
For additional information or to be added to the electronic mailing list, please call 978-360-3680.
We welcome requests for sign language interpreting and other access requests (i.e. Computer Aided Real Time (CART), food allergies, etc.). Please contact the host of this event for requests, questions or event information, Francellis Quinones, 978-360-3680 or email fquinones@necc.mass.edu
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