This two-day workshop in mid-July will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Historian Christian Samito, MHS Teacher Fellow Dean Eastman, andLaura Lowell, MHS Manuscript Processor. Worksho ppartners include Salem Maritime National Historic Site and The Trustees of Reservations. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in Boston on July 15/16, Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area towns of Leominster and Lancaster (central Massachusetts) on July 30/31, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your payment to: Kathleen Barker, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215.

For Additional Information: Contact the Education Department: 617-646-0557 or education@masshist.org.

Using historical documents, landscapes, buildings and artifacts as investigative tools, participants will examine the concerns, conflicts, dilemmas, decisions, and dramatic confrontations of people along the road to revolution. Presented by the Massachusetts Historical Society and partnering organizations, the workshop takes place in locations throughout Boston, Lexington, Lincoln and Concord. An outstanding group of historians, educators, and site interpreters will work with the group over the course of the four day workshop.

This workshop is open to teachers and the general public, and is funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Educators can earn PDPs and 2 graduate credits (for an additional fee) through Framingham State University.

Registration

$125 ($100 for teachers and MHS fellows/members)

Workshop fee includes:

• Four-day program (daytime, plus one Thursday evening) with additional half day for educators
• Admission to all partnering sites
• Packet of reading materials
• Welcome breakfast on Monday at the Massachusetts Historical Society, lunches on Tuesday (Concord Museum), Wednesday (Lexington Historical Society) and Thursday (Old Manse), and a final evening with living history characters, colonial entertainment, and dessert in Minute Man National Park

To register, complete this registration form and send the form with your payment to:

Kathleen Barker
Massachusetts Historical Society
1154 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215
education@masshist.org

Complete directions for public transportation options, parking, and special lodging rates in Concord will be sent to all registrants. Questions? Call workshop directors Jayne Gordon (617) 646-0519 or Kathleen Barker (617) 646-0557.

Workshop Schedule

MONDAY, August 5: in Boston
Morning:

• Welcome breakfast at the Massachusetts Historical Society Introductions of participants, partners, places, and theme
• The Curious Newspaper Collections of Harbottle Dorr 
• Documenting the Coming of the American Revolution

Afternoon:

• Lunch on your own in Boston
• Background walking tour with Historian Bill Fowler (from the Common to the North End)

TUESDAY, August 6: in Concord
Morning:

• The Characters and the Community with Historian Bob Gross/ Part 1 (Concord Museum)
• “Reading” the artifacts in the “Why Concord?” gallery (Concord Museum)

Afternoon:

• Lunch at the Concord Museum
• The Characters and the Community with Bob Gross/ Part 2 (Concord Museum)
• “Reading” the Landscape: the world and worries of the Concord farmer with historian Brian Donahue (Minute Man National Park, Battle Road Farm fields)

WEDNESDAY, August 7: in Lexington
Morning:

• Paul Revere Capture Site and The Road to Revolution film (Minute Man National Park)
• Who Shot First 1? Depositions and other accounts with NPS Education Coordinator Jim Hollister (Lexington Green)

Afternoon:

• Lunch at Munroe Tavern (Lexington Historical Society)
• The experience of the British soldier (at Munroe Tavern)

THURSDAY, August 8: in Concord and Lincoln

Morning:

• Using primary source documents to (re)construct lost lives with Historian Mary Fuhrer (Major John Buttrick House, Minute Man National Park)
• Who Shot First 2? Depositions and other accounts with Jim Hollister (North Bridge)

Afternoon:

• Lunch and tour of Old Manse: William Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Legacy of Revolution
• Research/Writing workshop: “People at a Crossroads” with Mary Fuhrer and Educator Joanne Myers (on the grounds of the Old Manse)
•  Break for supper on your own in Concord

Evening:

• Special living history program “Battle Road Heroes” (Hartwell Tavern historic area, Minute Man National Park)
• Dessert and colonial entertainment in the Hartwell Barn

FRIDAY, August 9: in Boston

• Optional morning for educators to work on lesson plans with teacher-facilitator Duncan Wood (MHS)

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Freedom's Way Director of Education Maud Ayson, Historian Mary Fuhrer, MHS Teacher Fellow Timothy Castner, and Nancy Heywood, MHS Digital Projects Coordinator. Additional partners include the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area, Leominster Public Library, and the First Church of Lancaster. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in Boston on July 15/16, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your payment to: Kathleen Barker, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215.

For Additional Information: Contact the Education Department: 617-646-0557 or education@masshist.org.

This two-day workshop will focus on how to use local resources – documents, artifacts, landscapes and the rich expertise in every town – to examine historical issues with a national focus. We will concentrate on the period just after the Revolution and the concerns and conflicts, hopes and fears, experiences and expectations of the people living in the Boston area at a time of uncertainty, fragility, and possibility. We will investigate such questions as: What was it like to live in a town that had been around for a long time in a country that was new? When the nation was first forming after the Revolution, what were people in our town/region worried about? How much did the geography, economy, culture, and social makeup of our region influence those concerns? How can we find out? What resources/pieces of evidence does our community have that relate to this time period and the people living in it? How can we best present this evidence and allow people of all ages to discover answers to some of these questions? How does our local focus add a crucial dimension to our understanding of a key period in American history?

The workshop is open to teachers, librarians, archivists, members of local historical societies, and all interested local history enthusiasts. Workshop faculty will include Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the MHS Department of Education and Public Programs, Historian Benjamin Park, MHS Teacher Fellow Betsy Lambert, and Elaine Grublin, MHS Head of Reader Services. There is a $25 charge to cover lunches both days; program and material costs have been generously funded by the Saltonstall Foundation. Educators can earn 14 PDPs and 1 Graduate Credit (for an additional fee) from Framingham State University.

Additional two-day workshops will be held in the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area towns of Leominster and Lancaster (central Massachusetts) on July 30/31, at Coolidge Point in Manchester (North Shore) on August 13/14, and in Pittsfield (Berkshires) on November 8/9.

To Register: Please complete this registration form and send it with your payment to: Kathleen Barker, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215.

For Additional Information: Contact the Education Department: 617-646-0557 or education@masshist.org.

What is the meaning of historical objects? Why are they preserved, and why have they survived? Are they valued for their associations with notable historical figures or landmark events, as objects of beauty, as the survival of relics from a distant past, or for the stories they convey? The exhibition explores these questions through the display of 18th-century portraits and objects from the Society's collections, along with rarely seen engravings, needlework, maps, weapons, furniture, clothing, scientific instruments, and silver.

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Boston became a center of the national antislavery movement, and in 1831 William Lloyd Garrison, "all on fire" for the cause, began publication of The Liberator, the country's leading abolitionist newspaper. There was strong resistance to the radical movement, however, not only in the slaveholding South, but among Northerners' as well. The exhibition features manuscripts, photographs, artifacts—including the imposing stone for The Liberator—and portraits related to the abolitionist movement in Boston.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, this exhibition features the pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the document. Visitors can learn how the MHS acquired this extraordinary pen as well as view paintings, broadsides, engravings, and manuscripts that tell the story of how Boston celebrated Emancipation.

View documents and artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln. Featured items include Lincoln's letter to Joshua F. Speed explaining his evolving views on slavery as well as the casts of the life mask and hands of Lincoln made by Leonard Volk in the spring of 1860.