Calling all scholars of Turkish, Armenian, Georgian, and Syriac Studies! Apply now for a virtual, four-session program focused on professional development.

The Plant Humanities Initiative at Dumbarton Oaks invites applications for two-week virtual faculty residencies in June 2026, concentrating on topics at the intersection of East Asia Studies and Plant Humanities.

Applications are open for the 2026 Plant Humanities Summer Program! This program is a collaboration between the DO Plant Humanities Initiative and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Participants will engage in two weeks of virtual instruction followed by two weeks in-person at Oak Spring.

Due to inclement weather, the Gardens are closed today, Friday, December 5. But the Museum is warm and open! We look forward to welcoming visitors to the Gardens again tomorrow, Saturday, December 6, unless additional closure guidance is shared. Keep an eye out on social media and our website!

Winter season at Dumbarton Oaks begins on Tuesday, December 2. Admission to the Gardens is free, but tickets must be reserved in advance via Eventbrite.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving baking, have you heard of the tonka bean? Often compared to vanilla, it is a central ingredient in many recipes around the world... Except in the United States, where it is actually banned by the Food and Drug Administration!

Join us on Sunday, December 7 and Monday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m. to hear our Fall 2025 Musician-in-Residence Phillip Golub perform original compositions alongside unique re-imaginings of familiar melodies. Tickets: www.doaks.org/events/music...

In observance of Thanksgiving, the Museums and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks are closed on Thursday, November 27. We look forward to welcoming visitors again on Friday, November 28. Find more information about hours and tickets at our #LinkInBio under "Plan Your Visit to DO."

There would be no silk without silkworms, and no silkworms without the mulberry tree!

Our three newest Medieval Library vols. are out now: THE MENOLOGION OF BASIL II, THE WORKS OF HROTSVIT OF GANDERSHEIM, and vol. 1 of THE OLD ENGLISH CHRONICLE!

In observance of Veterans' Day, the Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks will be closed on Tuesday, November 11. We look forward to welcoming visitors again on Wednesday, November 12. Plan your visit to Dumbarton Oaks at www.doaks.org/visit/plan.

Join us on Thursday, November 20, at 6:00 p.m. to hear from Brian S. Bauer, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago, speaking on the mummification practices of the Inca and the journey of five royal mummies from Cusco to Lima.

Up next in our Music At Dumbarton Oaks Concert Series, we welcome father-son duo Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane!

In the spirit of Halloween, meet Graylin and Giorgia, two Dumbarton Oaks fellows who participate in the Death Working Group—an informal group of DO scholars whose research tackles the topic of death. What places in Dumbarton Oaks do you find the spookiest? vimeo.com/1132248701

In observance of United Nations Day, did you know some of the first conversations behind the creation of the UN were hosted at Dumbarton Oaks? Find out more about this history at https://www.doaks.org/about/history/dumbarton-oaks-conversations. Image source: US National Archives

"Gulmohar" is a popular name for restaurants, resorts, boutiques, songs, and even an award-winning 2023 Indian melodrama. But how did this tree become such an important symbol in Indian culture?

Less than two weeks left before the deadline!

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Mary Cunningham, well-known among Byzantinists for her wide-ranging studies of the Virgin Mary and other topics in medieval Christianity.

Join us on Wednesday, November 12, for a talk by Professor Meredith McKittrick on the landscapes of white supremacy. Register at www.doaks.org/events/garden-and-landscape-studies/public-lectures/landscapes-of-white-supremacy-water-aridity-and-racial-domination-in-twentieth-century-southern-africa.

Read Jonathan Wilcox's (The Medieval Review) new review of The Old English Catholic Homilies: The First Series, by Ælfric,Edited and translated by Roy M. Liuzza: https://domedieval.org/review-the-old-english-catholic-homilies-the-first-series/

Join us on Thursday, October 23, for a public lecture by Maximilien Durand, director of the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art at the Musée du Louvre. Registration is free but required. Learn more about the event and register at www.doaks.org/events/byzan...

Calling all Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, Plant Humanities, and Garden and Landscape scholars! Fellowship and Grant applications for the 2026-2027 academic cycle are due by Saturday, November 1, 2025.   Learn more about DO's Fellowships and Grants and apply today at www.doaks.org/research/fel....

Dumbarton Oaks proudly supports the 2026 Byzantine Studies Prize by The Medieval Academy of America, awarding $1,000 to a meritorious monograph in Byzantine Studies. The deadline for nominations is Wednesday, October 15, 2025. www.medievalacademy.org/page/Byzanti...

The Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks will remain open through the federal government shutdown. We look forward to welcoming visitors during our usual public hours.

MEDICAL WRITINGS is a “valuable addition” to DOML, “one that will be of interest not only to those specializing in medieval English medicine, but also to a broader readership.” Read the review: domedieval.org/books/medica...

Congratulations to Thaisa Way, Director of Garden and Landscape Studies, on receiving a Special Commendation by the jury of the J.B. Jackson Prize at the University of Virginia's Center for Cultural Landscapes. Read the full announcement at www.arch.virginia.edu/news/center-....

Presenting our 2025-2026 Fellows! Over the next year, they will advance scholarship in the areas of Pre-Columbian, Byzantine, Plant Humanities, Music, and Garden and Landscape studies. Meet our fellows and their research projects at www.doaks.org/about/people....

The Museum and Gardens at Dumbarton Oaks will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, September 16. Daily tickets will not be sold and season passes will not be honored. We look forward to welcoming visitors again on Wednesday, September 17.

BOOK OF THE DEAD is officially out! The second book in our Texts from the Early Americas series is the first transcription and translation of a Nahuatl-language death registry maintained by the Indigenous people of Huexotzinco, Mexico (1619–1640). Get your copy: www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978088...

Just published: SACRALIZING VIOLENCE IN BYZANTIUM! [Image caption: Plate with the Battle of David and Goliath, Byzantine, 629–630. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.]

🧵(1) This month, 10 students from around the world gathered at HMML in Collegeville, Minnesota, to learn Classical Armenian language and paleography. 

 Thanks to @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social and the Zohrab Information Center, Eastern Diocese, for sponsoring the course!

We’re thrilled to announce that vol. 1 of MEDICAL WRITINGS FROM EARLY MEDIEVAL ENGLAND has won the 2025 International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England Award for Best Translation or Edition! Thank you @isseme2025.bsky.social! For this year’s awardees: isseme.org/2025/07/15/i...

Our July #PlantOfTheMonth feature on @jstordaily.bsky.social explores the saguaro’s ties to desert wildlife, human history, and environmental change.🌵 Check out “Saguaro Cactus: A Desert Sentinel’s Prickly Plight” by Nina Foster: daily.jstor.org/saguaro-cactus…

Our bronze horse is back on display! This centuries-old Arabian masterwork is now on view in the Courtyard Gallery. To learn more about this object, from its origins to its reconstruction process, visit the object file at museum.doaks.org/objects-1/in...

BIBLICAL AND PASTORAL POETRY is “of high quality” and “a clear and uniformly excellent prose translation,” an essential read for scholars of Avitus. Thanks, JML @brepols.net! Read the review: domedieval.org/review-bibli...

LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY is “an invaluable contribution to the fields of Byzantine literature, Mariology, and Eastern church history.” Thanks, Speculum @uchicagopress.bsky.social ! Read the full review: domedieval.org/review-life-...

House Collections Manager Carla Galfano is back to tell us about one of the more particular pieces on display in the Museum: our Swiss heating stove! Still curious? Check out this stove's object file and browse any of our other collections online! museum.doaks.org/objects-1/in...

July 11 marks the feast of Benedict of Nursia, founder of what would become known as the Benedictine Order and a seminal figure in the development of the Western Christian monastic tradition more broadly. Get THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT today! domedieval.org/books/the-ru...

Submit a paper proposal for one of our 2026 @kzooicms.bsky.social sessions by Monday, September 15! Topics include the Menologion of Basil II, early medieval chronicles, and late antique and medieval Latin poetry and prose. wmich.edu/medievalcong...

How did coffee become European? ☕ Find out in 'Stimulant Sea!' Chat with the curator, Postdoctoral Fellow Justin Mann, and come visit 'Stimulant Sea' to learn how coffee and sugar made their way to the present day. Now on view in the Museum through April 2026! www.doaks.org/visit/museum...

Congratulations to MEXICO-TENOCHTITLAN: DYNAMISM AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, edited by Barbara E. Mundy, Leonardo López Luján, and Elizabeth Hill Boone for receiving the Prix Raymond et Yvonne Lantier 2025 from l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres! aibl.fr/prix-et-fondat…

Everything reminds us of them 😔 Farewell to 'The White House,' our latest contemporary art installation by Miami-based artist Santiago Montoya. We will miss these iconic pieces and are honored to have had this installation on our grounds. Stay tuned for our next installation!

It's your last week to see 'The White House' by artist Santiago Montoya! You don't want to miss the chance to see this magnificent exhibition designed for our Museum and Gardens that spans over 10 acres of land. 'The White House' will be on view through Sunday, June 22.

WAVES OF INFLUENCE “is bound to be a keystone study for graduate students of anthropology or history, and anyone interested in . . . how humans in the deep past may have moved far beyond their cultural horizons.” Thanks @spanishbulletin.bsky.social! Read the review: tandfonline.com/toc/cbhs20/cur…

There will be a bit of us at @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social this summer! 🎉Very happy to report that our project coordinator has been awarded a summer fellowship in Byzantine Studies, where she will study the seals of the Triakontaphyllos famil. Kudos, @sealygirl.bsky.social!

Our Education Team works hard to ensure we can provide fun, engaging educational content to our visiting students. Designing these programs allows space for play and interactivity that students from @dccollaborative enjoyed recently! #GameMW @museum-week.org

Join us and @nybg for the fourth installation in our Plant Humanities Conversations: Soil Imaginaries! Wednesday, June 11 at 12:00 p.m. on Zoom. Hear from our Executive Director Yota Batsaki and other experts by registering below. See you there! nybg.org/event/2025-pla…

It's #MuseumWeek! Featuring a special painting: "The Song Rehearsal" (1873) by Edgar Degas. Known for his playful compositions of color and light, Degas often mimicked movement in his static works. Check out the object file, or better yet, come visit it in the Museum! #MovementMW

Watch and listen as Erik paints a hippocampus statue in the Pebble Garden and tells us about his process. To see his paintings and hear more about his art journey, check out Erik's Oaks News piece! doaks.org/newsletter/art…

Remember the season finale of The White Lotus? Our May #PlantOfTheMonth feature on @JSTOR_Daily breaks down the poisonous and medicinal qualities of the species that shocked fans of the show. Learn about the pong-pong tree from Nina Foster: daily.jstor.org/cerbera-odol...