our COURSES

history worth traveling for

Depth, without the classroom.

Travel & Culture Salon courses are designed for curious travelers who want to understand more than what they can see at first glance. Each course takes one subject and follows its story through art, history, architecture, and place.

Take one before a trip to arrive with context, return to it afterward to deepen what you experienced, or simply follow your curiosity from home.

Dutch Tulipmania: The Madness & the Myth

Step into the Dutch Republic of the 1630s to uncover the real story behind Tulipmania. Explore how a rare flower became the focus of collecting, speculation, art, and myth—and why this famous “bubble” is more complicated than the legend suggests.

Self-paced · Lifetime access

Enrollment opens October 2026

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A Field Guide to Gargoyles

Soar across medieval Europe to uncover the history and meaning behind one of Gothic architecture’s most fascinating and misunderstood features. Discover why gargoyles took such strange and monstrous forms on medieval cathedrals—and what they reveal about belief, fear, humor, and imagination in the Middle Ages.

Self-paced · Lifetime access

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About Your Instructor

Heather Bolen is the founder of Travel & Culture Salon and holds an M.A. in Early Modern European History from Emory University. A historian, writer, and guide, she creates courses and journeys that explore art, architecture, and cultural history through a focused lens, using one compelling subject to open up a much larger story.

Her approach was shaped in part by several years living in Amsterdam and by a lifelong love of travel, museums, and historical research. Today, she is based in New York City, where she also leads historian-led walking tours.

IN THEIR WORDS

  • A fascinating discussion of gargoyles and grotesques! The photos in particular were excellent, starting with the various paintings of Notre Dame. The course was nicely paced and presented a lot of interesting information without doing too much of a deep dive.

    Janice W. (New York, New York)

  • The pictures were beautiful, the format easy to use, especially the ability to go back and forward to study and review as often as I wished, and I did. I would recommend this course for anyone traveling to Europe or who just has an interest the sculptural macabre.

    Dave B. (West Hatfield, Massachusetts)

  • Just the right amount of architecture, history, art, and fun! Loved!

    Evie S. (Miami, Florida)

  • As an untrained but interested history buff, I loved this course. The content is well organized, and the pace is spot on. The gargoyles are places I’ve been or want to visit and what fun it will be to know more about these fascinating “creatures.” It’s a pleasure to do a course that has substantial content without being too academic.

    Kathy H. (New York, New York)