Richard J. S. Gutman, the leading authority on New England diner culture, will present the lecture "What Is It About Diners? More Than a Meal, That's for Sure" at the National Heritage Museum, Saturday, November 20, 2 pm. One of the Museum's most popular speakers, Mr. Gutman will draw on his more than 40 years of diner eating and scholarly research to elaborate on the staying power of this enduring American classic. Admission is free, made possible by the Lowell Institute.
The lecture is offered in conjunction with "Night Road," an exhibition of 23 compelling photographs of diners taken along the Northeast industrial corridor by John D. Woolf. The images reveal the dramatic yet playful forms of these architectural treasures, and capture the craftsmanship and imagination that went into their design.
Richard Gutman is director of the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, and curator of their ongoing exhibition on the history of the American diner. Much of the collection, from photos and menus to stools and floor tile, is on loan from Mr. Gutman, who has been acquiring diner memorabilia since 1970. He is the recognized historian on the subject of diners, and popularized them through lectures, articles, exhibitions, and the publication of books on the subject, including American Diner (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) and American Diner Then and Now (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000; New York: HarperCollins, 1993). He and his wife Kellie were guest curators of two highly popular exhibitions at the Museum: "American Diner: Then and Now" and "Summer Camp."
