Every year, our public programs explore a different aspect of our collections, culminating with an all-day Festival. This year’s Festival on October 17 is the highlight of our 2015  Eating Through Time: Food, Health and History celebration of food, cookery, and health.

Join us as we welcome chefs, community activists, historians, and food enthusiasts to discuss the past, present, and future of food in society, culture, and policy. The festival will feature talks, panels, demonstrations, tastings, performances, book signings, food trucks, a pop-up bookstore and marketplace, historic cookbooks on display in The Drs. Barry and Bobbi Coller Rare Book Reading Room, and more. Food and science writer Evelyn Kim is guest curator for the event.

The program of speakers and presenters includes:

• Chef Jacques Pépin on food memories
• Cookbook author Bryant Terry in conversation on food, politics, and the power of culture
• A Place at the Table documentary screening and Q&A with the producers
• Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives with the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard School of Public Health
• Talks by historians Ken Albala and Betty Fussell
• Panels on food and its relationship to aging, the law, technology, the future, and community health
• Workshops on topics from insect eating to aphrodisiacs

Online registration is available here with discounts for Academy Fellows and Members, Friends of the Rare Book Room, students, and hospital house staff.