Lowell Lectures begins.

The free, public lectures begin with a series on geology by Yale professor Benjamin Stillman at the Odeon Theatre at 1 Federal Street. The series is supported by John Lowell Jr., the son of Francis Cabot Lowell, who left a bequest to promote “The truth of those moral and religious precepts, by which alone, I believe, men can be secure of happiness in this world and that to come . . .” Subsequent speakers include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Everett, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, and Henry David Thoreau. The lectures are subsequently held at the Rogers Building, Marlboro Chapel, Tremont Temple, Huntington Hall, the Boston Public Library, and continue today at various venues.