Enjoy an informal tea in the gardens before an engaging lecture on the life and times of Naumkeag’s first owner, Joseph Choate, a prominent Gilded Age lawyer and diplomat.  You may know him as the man behind Naumkeag, but did you know Joseph Choate was also a key figure behind the creation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Bridge, Stanford University, the Panama Canal, and other major Gilded Age developments?  From the streets and ballrooms of New York to the US Supreme Court and the Court of Saint James, Choate helped shape history with witty speeches and personal charisma.  Despite his undeniable influence in American law and politics, his story is little known today.