Jeremy Musson presents
Renishaw Hall in the Age of Sir George Sitwell
Friday, November 7, 2025
6:00 p.m ET lecture ⋅ 7:15 p.m. ET reception
The Explorers Club
46 E 70th St, New York, NY
Live on YouTube
Please join AFA as we welcome JEREMY MUSSON, author, broadcaster, educator and renowned British heritage consultant, as the speaker for our 2025 annual Fall Benefit Lecture. Musson will shed new light on Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, home of the Sitwell family for 400 years. Sir George Sitwell (1860-1943) landowner and MP, is better known to history as the father of three famous writers, Dame Edith Sitwell, Sir Osbert Sitwell and Sir Sacheverell Sitwell. While the memoirs of his two eldest children paint a picture of an English eccentric, Sir George was an active and educated figure, a patron of John Singer Sargent and Sir Edwin Lutyens, and author of a now highly regarded and deeply researched treatise on historic formal Italian gardens On the Making of Gardens. He thoughtfully improved his family home, and designed and laid out his own Italianate garden there, still maintained by his great-granddaughter Alexandra Sitwell Hayward. While he was an individualistic and aristocratic figure, new research reveals how deeply Sir George studied Italian art and architecture, how this knowledge informed his understanding of English design traditions, and how these interests also influenced the paths of those famous offspring. Over the past two years, Mr. Musson has had unrivaled access to the family papers and is working on a new biography of Sir George.
About Jeremy Musson
Musson studied at University College London and the Warburg Institute. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and an affiliated lecturer of the department of architecture at the University of Cambridge. A contributor to Country Life since 1995, he spent twelve years on the staff, nine as architectural editor, after working as a National Trust assistant curator in East Anglia and an architectural adviser to the Victorian Society.
An independent heritage and design consultant since 2007, he has advised projects at St Paul’s Cathedral, Hardwick Hall, and Trinty College Cambridge. He has authored of over twenty books, such as: Up and Down Stairs (2009), English Country House Interiors (2011), Kelmscott Manor (2022), and was co-author and co-editor with Professor Sir David Cannadine of The Country House: Past, Present and Future (2018). A regular lecturer on the Attingham summer school, and tutor for the Society of Protection of Ancient Buildings’ annual Plunket scholars, he was appointed Chairman of the Historic Houses Foundation in 2025.
PURCHASE TICKETS
Virtual Admission | $45
For those not able to join us in New York, but who would like to watch the lecture online via livestream or to have access to the recording, tickets are $45 per person. Virtual Tickets are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
General Admission | $135 or $75
General admission tickets for individuals to the presentation and reception are $125 per person, plus processing fee (total $135). Guests age 35 and under may purchase tickets for $68, plus processing fee (total $75)
We strongly encourage you to purchase tickets online through the button above, before prices increase November 1 to $150.
Sponsorships | $1,500 and above
Donors are essential to the success of AFA’s only annual fundraising event. Proceeds support the AFA’s ongoing operations, particularly our mission to recruit diverse candidates who offer a fresh perspective on the history of British country house collections, architecture, landscape design, and social history.
Benefit Underwriters and Supporters, as well as individual Patrons and Sponsors, are invited to spend additional time with Musson and AFA on a private tour of The Frick that morning, the evening lecture, followed by a convivial reception and intimate dinner in the Explorers Club’s charming library.
- $10,000 – Benefit Underwriter pre-lecture tour, lecture, reception, dinner for two
- $5,000 – Benefit Supporter pre-lecture tour, lecture, reception, dinner for one
- $2,500 – Patron pre-lecture tour, lecture, reception, dinner for one
- $1,500 – Sponsor pre-lecture tour, lecture, reception, dinner for one
- $1,000+ – Virtual Donor a virtual seat, 100% tax-deductible
PURCHASE SPONSORSHIPS
With gratitude to all our donors
| Thomas Appelquist & Charles Newman | Morrison Heckscher |
| Michele Beiny | Anne Kenny-Urban |
| Marianne Brown | Michael G. Kerrigan |
| Susan Burke | Jack Kilgore |
| Jennifer Carlquist | Kristin M. Kligerman |
| Edward Lee Cave | David M. Maxfield |
| Amy Coes | Pauline Metcalf |
| Sarah D. Coffin | David Parsons |
| Margaret Civetta | Stewart G. Roseblum |
| Robert G. Collins & E. Clothier Tepper | Susan J. Rawles |
| Genevieve Cortinovis | Charles C. Savage |
| Nancy Smith Douglas | Molly & Joe Seiler |
| Nancy deWaart | Molly F. Stockley |
| Adam T. Erby | Lee Talbot |
| Barbara File | Beth Carver Wees |
| Sheila ffolliott & Shepard Krech III | Linda R. Weld |
| The Garden Conservancy | As of October 21, updated weekly |
| Merrily Glosband |
Top Image: Renishaw Hall. Photo © Jeremy Musson; Bottom Images: The dining room and ballroom at Renishaw Hall, Renishaw Hall Collection/Chrysalis Photography & Mike Kennedy. Renishaw Hall gardens. Photo courtesy Renishaw Hall Collection.